DUBUQUE — A stingy defensive effort helped the Central College men's basketball team oust the top-seeded University of Dubuque 72-61 Thursday, advancing to Saturday's Iowa Conference tournament finals and a shot at an NCAA Division III tournament berth.
The fifth-seeded Dutch (18-9) were able to reverse the result of last Saturday's regular-season finale, a 67-57 Dubuque victory. Central won the rebounding margin 44-33 and held the conference champion Spartans to 33.9 percent shooting. It was Central's fourth game in Dubuque in nine days, and the Dutch won three of the four, including an 84-79 first-round tourney triumph at Loras College Tuesday night.
"It was really about our defense tonight," coach Craig Douma said. "We played pretty good defense last Saturday but we stepped it up another level tonight. The effort and energy of our team was really good tonight."
Winning back-to-back road games in league tournament play for the first time in school history, Central advances to face second-seeded Wartburg College (16-10) Saturday in the title game at 7 p.m. in Waverly. The Knights overwhelmed sixth-seeded Buena Vista, 92-77 Thursday. Saturday's winner gets the league's automatic NCAA Division III tournament berth. The Dutch will be bidding for their second NCAA tournament appearance in three seasons, having advanced to the second round in 2013-14. Central has 10 NCAA tournament berths since 1977, the league's most.
Leading 28-27 at halftime, Central broke the game open with 44 points in the second half by shooting 57.1 percent from the field.
"Our message at halftime was to be patient offensively," Douma said. "We needed to let the offense come to us. We got good looks and the guys were able to execute."
A balanced scoring attack saw just three Dutch players reach double figures.
"We really spread it out tonight," Douma said. "It was a little bit of everybody at different times. A lot of guys stepped up at different points in the game."
Leading the way was guard Pete Walker (junior, Red Oak) with 20 points. Forward Colby Taylor (junior, Creston) had 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds while forward Austin Glawe (junior, Aurelia, Sioux Central HS) added 10 points and center Ryan Kunkel (junior, Solon) had eight boards.
"Pete (Walker) had a rough first half," Douma said. "He came back in the second half and hit some big 3-pointers and played well."
Central and Wartburg split their two regular-season games. The Knights prevailed at Waverly Jan. 9, 81-78. At Pella Feb. 13, the Dutch put on a 3-point shooting clinicto win 101-75. Wartburg was 8-6 in conference play while Central was 7-7. Douma said the Dutch will need a defensive effort like they got in suprising Dubuque if they hope to advance Saturday.
"We've got to keep doing what we've been doing," Douma said. "Our game plan is not going to change a whole lot. We just need to play 40 solid minutes of basketball."
