PELLA—Central College got a relentless effort on the boards but Coe College used its defense to send the Dutch to a 61-51 women's basketball defeat Saturday.
Central (5-14 overall, 2-8 American Rivers got a career-high 15 rebounds from scrappy guard
Kassidi Steel (junior, New Sharon, North Mahaska HS) and outrebounded Coe 51-40. But the Kohawks (15-5 overall, 7-4 conference) denied open looks, limiting Central to 26.9% shooting.
Guard
Abby Johnson (sophomore, Ankeny) had 16 points and nine boards.
"Abby is almost automatic from inside the 3-point line, which is impressive, " coach
Moran Lonning said. "Her grind, to just keep crashing and get seven offensive boards, that's great. And then Kassidi was just cleaning up the boards defensively."
Center
Allison Van Gorp (sophomore, Pella, Pella Christian HS) posted her third consecutive double-double and her fifth of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
While Central held a brief early lead and was up 13-11 after one quarter, Coe took a 29-22 halftime lead and was in command most of the way. However, down 57-40 with 2:21, Central used an aggressive full-court press and 3-point baskets from guards
Kelsea Hurley (senior, Scottsdale, Ariz., Desert Mountain HS),
Samantha Scott (sophomore, Davenport, North Scott HS) and Johnson to slice the advantage to 57-49 with 58 seconds left before Coe put the game away.
"We fought really, really hard the whole game," Lonning said. "It's hard when you're not scoring to keep getting stop after stop. But we outrebounded them by 11. I love the fight of that. That's a gritty kind of stat that I want to make sure Central adopts as our M.O., taking care of the controllables at all times, no matter if the shots fall or not."
Lonning also liked the Dutch defensive showing, as Coe was limited to 36.5% shooting.
"Our shots weren't falling, but I'll take the blame on that for not finding other ways to score," she said. "But I hope that our players just keep fighting this hard and I know good things will happen."
