DUBUQUE — The Central College men's basketball team earned an 85-78 road Iowa Conference victory over the University of Dubuque Saturday evening.

Central (9-12, 6-6 conference) raced out to a 46-38 halftime lead and held off Dubuque (12-9, 4-8 conference) down the stretch to close out game. Dubuque cut the Central lead to 69-67 with 6:28 left in the game before a three-point play from senior guard Nick Drucker (Grimes, Dallas Center-Grimes HS). The Dutch lead was cut to just five the rest of the game.

"We did a great job at the end of the game tonight finding a way to close it out," said coach Craig Douma. "We had a couple of different guys make plays down the stretch."

Senior forward Malik Wildermuth (Normal, Ill., University HS) poured in 19 points and grabbed four rebounds.

"Malik did a great job tonight," said Douma. "He had to play a lot of minutes (35) due to our foul trouble. Malik played great defense tonight."

Fellow senior forward Kyle Smith (Grand River, New Hampton HS) had 16 points and collected nine rebounds in 28 minutes.

"Kyle played well from the start tonight," said Douma. "It was nice to see Kyle and Malik play well again."

Senior center Luke Posivio (Iowa City) had 12 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

"Luke did a great job for us tonight," said Douma. "He came off the bench and provided us some great minutes with the foul trouble we were dealing with."

Sophomore forward Jaden Moody (Cambridge, Ballard HS) scored nine points off 3-of-5 shooting from the field.

The Dutch defense held the Spartans to just 38.5 percent shooting. Central shot 48.3 percent and won the rebound battle 42-39.

Next up for the Central squad is a trip to league rival Simpson College Wednesday night for a women's-men's doubleheader with the men beginning at 8 p.m. Central won the first matchup 93-87 January 17 in Pella. Coach Douma is hoping for the KuyperKrazies to make the trip over to Indianola Wednesday.

"Wednesday is a big game for us on the road," he said. "Hopefully the KuyperKrazies can make the short trip over and give us a great crowd."