DECORAH — After a brutal non-conference schedule the Central College men's basketball team was happy to begin Iowa Conference play Wednesday night, defeating Luther College 86-82.

With the win, Central improved to 1-4 on the season and 1-0 in conference.  The Dutch took a 46-40 lead into halftime before the Norse (2-4 overall, 0-1 conference) battled back to take a 47-46 lead early in the second half.

The two teams traded the lead until Central captured a 69-68 advantage with 9:15 remaining in the game and the Dutch never relinquished the lead.

"Tonight was a really good win," said coach Craig Douma. "We played really well and got some contributions from different guys."

The Dutch were led by senior forward Kyle Smith (Grand River, New Hampton HS) with 23 points and six rebounds.

"I thought Kyle played well tonight," said Douma. "He gave us a lot of good minutes."

Fellow senior forward Malik Wildermuth (Normal, Ill., University HS) had 18 points, seven rebounds and a block.

"Malik gave us some big minutes tonight too," said Douma.

Sophomore forward Seth Wood (Branson) started for the first time this season and sparked the Dutch with 16 points and was the leading rebounder with eight.

"Seth played a great game tonight," said Douma. "He did a great job rebounding the basketball and also knocked down some shots for us."

Junior guard Jamel McKnight (Austin, Texas, Hendrickson HS) led the Dutch off the bench with 13 points.

"Jamel did a great job getting to the rim tonight," said Douma.

Playing in his first collegiate game, sophomore forward Luke Finley (St. Louis, Mo., Lafayette HS) had seven points, four rebounds, an assist and a block.

"For it being his first game, Luke played really well," said Douma. "He gave us a lift offensively when we were looking to make a change in our lineup and also defended Luther's bigs. Luther's style of play allows their forwards and centers to shoot from the outside and Luke did a nice job defending."

There's always room for improvement, according to Douma.

"Very happy with the win tonight but we need to shoot free throws better," he said after the Dutch shot just 16-of-30 from the charity stripe.

Central owned the rebound battle 41-32 and outshot Luther 54.4 percent to 44.8.

League play continues for the Dutch Saturday in Pella at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium with a women's-men's doubleheader. The men's game begins at 4 p.m. Live stats and broadcast can be found at athletics.central.edu.