Smith’s 26 lifts Central past Coe in men’s basketball showdown

Central Dutch Athletics

Central Dutch Athletics

CEDAR RAPIDS — Central College senior forward Kyle Smith (Grand River, New Hampton HS) racked up 26 points in a 77-67 victory over Iowa Conference foe Coe College Saturday afternoon in Cedar Rapids.

“Kyle played a great game tonight,” said coach Craig Douma. “He carried us for a lot of the game.”

Smith connected on 6-of-11 three-point attempts and grabbed five rebounds in 32 minutes.

The Dutch trailed at the break 41-37 and fell behind 46-40 with 17:12 left in the game before Central rallied to take a 53-52 lead with 12:19 to go. Central scored five straight possessions to extend its lead to 64-57 with just over seven minutes remaining.

After the Kohawks cut the lead to two, junior guard Jamel McKnight (Austin, Texas, Hendrickson HS) scored six of his 11 points to put the game away in the final minutes.

“Jamel had a great second half,” said Douma. “He made plays and did a great job closing the game for us and making plays down the stretch.”

Sophomore forward Seth Wood (Branson, Mo.) added nine points off 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc, senior forward Andre Johnson (Alief, Texas, Hastings HS) added eight points, six rebounds off the bench and senior reserve center Luke Posivio (Iowa City) had eight points and five rebounds in 15 minutes.

“Seth did a great job shooting the ball in the first half,” said Douma. “I thought Andre gave us a nice spark in the first half and then Luke has been playing great the past few weeks. Luke’s rebounded the ball really well lately.”

Coe outshot Central 47.9 percent to 46.7 but the Dutch won the battle on the glass 32-31. The Dutch drilled 11-of-28 3s while the Kohawks made 7-of-19.

The victory improves Central to 8-10 overall and 5-4 in league play.

With a record of 3-1 in the last seven days, Central returns to action Saturday with a women’s-men’s doubleheader against Buena Vista University with the men beginning at 4 p.m. Buena Vista won the first contest 93-80 January 6.

“We’re excited to get back in front of our home crowd,” said Douma. “We love playing in front of the KuyperKrazies and we’re ready for a great atmosphere Saturday. We’re going to use the next couple days to get rested and then use this week to work on our offense.”

Posted by on Jan 21 2018. Filed under College Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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