Gambell, Rogers spark Central women’s basketball tourney comeback
PELLA—It took 20 years and a gritty fourth-quarter comeback but the Central College women’s basketball team overcame the University of Dubuque for a 57-48 American Rivers Conference tournament victory.
It was Central’s first tourney win since 2001, behind 17 points from guard Maci Gambell (junior, Hedrick, Pekin HS) and a career-high 18 rebounds from forward Payton Rogers (senior, Moravia).
The 6-3 Dutch, the fourth seed, advance to a 7 p.m. Thursday semifinal at 10-0 Simpson College, the top seed, which thrashed Luther College at Indianola, 94-58 Tuesday night. Simpson, which is ranked No. 7 in the D3hoops.com poll, outscored Central 77-61 at Pella Feb. 3.
But Central’s tourney run was looking like a short one for much of the night as the Dutch offense was stymied. Central shot an icy 18.2% from the field in the first quarter and finished at 21.6% for the night. But Dubuque (6-7) was kept under wraps as well in the physical contest, hitting just 25.0% from the floor.
“They play in a lot of these types of games,” coach Joe Steinkamp said. “They’ve played the top teams really tough. I give them a lot of credit, the way they defended us and made things difficult for us. But we just felt like if we could stay in it, the longer the game went on, we’d eventually start hitting shots.”
The difference was on the glass, Steinkamp said, noting that Dubuque held a 30-24 rebounding advantage in the first half but Central was up 56-54 for the night.
“We really turned it around in the second half and especially in that fourth quarter when we went on that run,” Steinkamp said.
Central trailed 27-22 at intermission and 40-35 after three periods but outscored the Spartans 22-8 in the last quarter.
Guard Emily Hay (senior, Lowden, North Cedar HS) had 11 points, eight rebounds and six steals while guard Carson Fisk (sophomore, Searsboro, Lynnville-Sully HS) had 10 points and seven rebounds. Forward Sami Craig (senior, Altoona, Southeast Polk HS) had five steals.
Steinkamp liked Gambell’s poise throughout the night.
“I thought Maci was unbelievable,” he said. “She can score by driving, she can score on post-ups and then she can step out and shoot the three, and she did all of those. Maci just never gets rattled. Even though it was a physical game, she likes that kind of game and uses that physical play against them.”
Rogers’ dominant rebounding effort was crucial as well.
“She was just relentless,” Steinkamp said. “There were a lot of missed shots and she just made it her mission to keep going to the glass and gave us a lot of extra possessions.”
The tourney win is another step forward in the Dutch program’s resurgence, Steinkamp said.
“It was really fun to host a conference tournament game and get that win,” he said. “I think we were nervous again tonight to start the game, which is probably to be expected. We haven’t been in a lot of these types of games but hopefully that comeback will kind of settle us and we have a little bit of momentum going into the next game.”
