DUBUQUE—It was trending towards a tense finish but turned into a runaway as the Central College men's basketball team overpowered Principia College (Ill.) 96-77 Sunday behind a 34-point, 14-rebound effort by center Josh Van Gorp (senior, Pella).
             
The Dutch (2-0) completed a weekend sweep at the Loras Mike Moklestead Motors Tipoff Classic, despite a stumble at the start which saw Principia (0-2) bolt to a 19-4 lead in the first 5 minutes, 36 seconds. Central was still down 29-19 with 6:39 left and had to scramble to enter halftime at 40-40.
             
"We were kind of sloppy with the ball and turned the ball over too many times in the first half," coach Joe Steinkamp said. "They have some elusive guards and they got going. They made a lot of tough shots."
             
After taking a 54-42 lead in the first 3 minutes of the second half, the Dutch saw their advantage melt to 58-57 with 11:56 remaining before taking control.
             
"Our guys really responded and started to string some stops together," Steinkamp said. "We started to play our basketball and really, the last 35 minutes of the game, I thought we played at a pretty high level. We had 27 assists, and it was really fun to watch us share the ball for that part of the game."
             
Nine of those assists came from forward Grant Johnson (5th-year, Waukee, Van Meter HS), who also had 11 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
             
"He has such good chemistry with Josh," Steinkamp said. "They work so well together on the high-low game."
             
Meanwhile Kaleb Brand (senior, Mount Vernon) delivered some much-needed outside scoring punch with 17 points, including three 3-point buckets.
             
"In the first half he was the one that really got us going in transition," Steinkamp said. "He had a couple of timely threes. They all seemed to be big ones."
             
It was Van Gorp's fifth career double-double and his 34 points were two shy of his career best.
             
"He did a good job of running the court and didn't get discouraged early on when things didn't go his way," Steinkamp said. "Our guys kept feeding him. He had a lot of the points but it really was a team effort with our guys with how fast they got the ball up the court and how well they shared the ball."
             
While Principia's outside game sparked its fast start, Central's size advantage took a toll.
             
"They spent a lot of energy and effort to try to slow (Van Gorp) down and front him and do some things but they got into foul trouble and ran out of bodies," Steinkamp said. "And we just kept coming at them. I really loved the pace that we played at."
             
Central also had several new faces see extensive action as Steinkamp builds depth for the season.
             
"It was good to get more guys in there and get in the scoring column," he said. "Some guys got their first college basketball experience and I thought that everyone who played, played well."
             
With its third game in five days, Central makes its home-season debut Tuesday with a 7 p.m. contest with Cornell College at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium. The Rams are 1-1, dropping a 78-64 decision to Coe College last Wednesday but posting a 60-54 victory at Eureka College (Ill.) Sunday.
             
"They're a really well-coached team and we'll have to continue to get even better Tuesday night," Steinkamp said.