PELLA — Making good use of its size advantage, Loras College outmuscled the Central College women's basketball team 77-54 Saturday.
The problem was magnified for the undersized Dutch (4-11 overall, 1-3 Iowa Conference) as they were missing 5-foot-11 center Jackie Kriegel (sophomore, Marengo, Iowa Valley HS) due to injury. Loras (10-5 overall, 3-1 conference) rolled up a lopsided 55-34 rebounding advantage. Lori Obedorf, a 6-2 center, racked up 17 boards for the Duhawks.
"Their size bothered us," coach Chelsea Petersen said. "They forced us into shooting too many perimeter shots and we were shooting too short into the shot clock. We didn't make the defense move."
Kriegel's absence was noticeable.
"That's not a position where we have a lot of depth," Petersen said.
An early 8-0 run gave Loras a 10-4 lead it never relinquished. Central closed within 19-16 at the end of the first quarter. An 11-2 at the start of the second period propelled the Duhawks to a 39-29 halftime lead and they took even firmer command by opening the third quarter on a 13-2 burst.
"Loras has had some really impressive wins," Petersen said. "And they're far more experienced from a guard perspective. It was a game where we had to play really well to win."
Central got 16 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals from freshman forward Claire Marburger (Perry) while guard Emily Dine (sophomore, Tampa Bay, Fla., East Lake HS)added 14. Guard Emily Neff (junior, Cedar Falls) came off the bench to grab six rebounds.
"Claire was really good in the second half," Petersen said. "She looked for opportunities inside and made some great reads."
Loras gave Dine extra defensive attention coming off her 31-point outburst in Wednesday's win over Dubuque.
"She had another game of playing pretty well," Petersen said.
Central shot just 31.0 percent from the floor to 41.6 percent for Loras. In addition to dominating the boards and getting good production inside, Loras capitalized on Central mistakes, Petersen said.
"Loras is the most efficient team we've played," she said. "We only had 12 turnovers but they had 17 points off turnovers."
Central's defensive performance was also lacking.
"We were definitely a step slow on our rotations," Petersen said. "We gave up way to many points. Our goal is to hold teams under 60 points; 77 is way too many."
Central heads to Cedar Rapids Wednesday for a league women's-men's twinbill at Coe College. The women's game tips at 6 p.m. The Kohawks are 10-5 overall and 1-3 in the league after an 80-62 defeat at Luther College Saturday.
