MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — On the front end of back-to-back games this weekend for the Central College men's basketball team, coach Craig Douma used 13 players en route to an 81-72 triumph over North Central University (Minn.) Friday night.
With another contest against Northwestern-St.Paul (Minn.) awaiting Central (2-0) Saturday night, Douma went deep into his bench against the Rams (0-2).
"We played a lot of guys," Douma said. "We're trying to keep some more guys fresh for back-to-back nights."
Forward Malik Wildermuth (senior, Normal, Ill. University HS) led the eight bench players in scoring, dropping nine points on 3-for-5 shooting. He added six rebounds as well.
"Malik played really well," Douma said. "I think what he did best was rebound the ball but he also shot pretty consistently."
Coming a rebound shy of a double-double, starting forward Ryan Kunkel (senior, Solon) made the most of his opportunities. He shot 5-for-6 from the field and 2-for-2 from the line to rack up 12 points.
"Kunkel really rebounded the ball well," Douma said. "We'll take that kind of an effort from him."
The game's leading scorer with 27 points, Colby Taylor (senior, Creston) became the 10th Dutch player to go at least 10-10 from the charity stripe. Taylor registered a 12-for-12 effort.
"We were able to make our free throws tonight," Douma said. "That's a big positive."
The Dutch lost the turnover battle 19-10, but turned their turnovers into 20 points as opposed to just 17 points by the Rams.
"We played so-so," Douma said. "We had far too many turnovers in a sloppy second half. We just weren't sharp offensively."
Central moves on to face Northwestern-St. Paul Saturday night at 5 p.m. The Eagles were slated to face Trinity Bible College (N.D.) Friday night but that contest was postponed due to weather-related travel concerns.
"They're going to have a bit of an advantage," Douma said. "We really challenged the guys about putting together two wins in one weekend. We're going to have to dig down deep tomorrow, both mentally and physically, against a very good Northwestern team."
