PELLA — Behind a career-high 31-point performance from sophomore guard Emily Dine (Oldsmar, Fla./East Lake HS), the Central College women's basketball squad won its first Iowa Conference contest of the season, a 74-63 victory over Dubuque Wednesday night.
Dine becomes just the 12th women's basketball player in Dutch history to post a 31-point game, the last coming Dec. 13, 2003 by Jenny Randeris. Dine went 9-of-17 from the field and connected on 7-of-10 shots from behind the arc. She was also a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line. Her 7 made 3-pointers tied the school record set by Katy Paxton in 2007.
"Everything felt really smooth tonight," Dine said. "I really felt like I was clicking and my teammates did a great job getting me the ball. I couldn't have this kind of success without them."
Coach Chelsea Petersen cited Dine's offseason as a key to her success.
"This kind of shooting is a credit to her (Dine's) work ethic," Petersen said. "She had one of the best offseasons on our team and it's nice to see her get rewarded for the time she put in."
The Dutch (4-10, 1-2 conference) trailed by 10, 13-3, with four minutes to play in the opening quarter, but outscored Dubuque (5-9, 0-3 conference) 33-15 in the final 14 minutes of the first half to take a 36-28 lead into halftime. The Spartans came as close as four with under three minutes in the game, but Central put them away with a 10-0 run, beginning at the 2:46 mark and ending with just 30 seconds to play.
"Obviously we got off to a bit of a slow start," Petersen said. "But the thing with this team is that we've seen a lot of improvement from the early part of the season where we weren't finishing games."
Petersen said the timeout before the 10-0 run was pivotal.
"There was a point in the fourth quarter where we talked about needing to score in big moments," she said. "After that timeout, the team came out and scored the points we needed to lock up the win."
Petersen was happy with the defensive effort, especially allowing Dubuque to attempt just four free throws.
"This game really came down to our defense," she said. "In their (Dubuque's) first two conference games, they went to the free throw line in the upper twenties. We really limited their opportunities from the free throw line."
Dubuque outshot the Dutch 46 percent to 40 percent, but Central scored 27 points off 21 Spartan turnovers and was aided by 38 points off the bench. Both teams shot well from long range, as the Dutch made half of their 3-point attempts (11-of-22) and Dubuque went 10-of-18 for a 56 percent mark. Central won the rebounding battle 37-34, including 12-5 on the offensive end.
Joining Dine in double-figure scoring was freshman forward Claire Marburger (Perry), who poured in 20 points, and sophomore guard Alison Malaby (Mechanicsville/North Cedar HS), who went for 12. Marburger added seven rebounds, while Malaby brought down six. Dine, Marburger and Malaby scored 63 of Central's 74 points.
Central will look to move its league record to .500 when Loras comes to Pella Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest at the P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium. The Duhawks (9-5, 2-1 conference) fell to Simpson 81-53 Wednesday.
"We felt all year that we are bought in to what we're doing here at Central," Petersen said. "We opened up conference play with two really tough opponents. I think those two games prepared us for the physicality and speed of the league and hopefully we can carry that forward."
