DUBUQUE—This team just won't go away.
           
Coming off its first home-court loss Wednesday, the Central College men's basketball team was trailing by 14 points on the road Saturday and its grip on a share of first place in the American Rivers Conference was slipping away.
           
But a 26-point, nine-rebound outburst from forward Grant Johnson (senior, Waukee, Van Meter HS), a career-high 14 rebounds from the point guard, Drew Edwards (senior, Eden Prairie, Minn.), combined with a relentless Dutch defense to deliver a gritty 66-56 comeback victory over Loras College in a battle for the conference top spot. A long road remains but Central, the team picked for eighth in the league, is alone in first at 9-3 in conference play while Nebraska Wesleyan University lurks a half-game back at 9-4. Loras and the University of Dubuque are 8-4 and Wartburg College is 7-5.
           
Central (14-6 overall) trailed 34-20 with 5 minutes left in the first half. The Dutch finished the half with a 10-2 burst, making it 36-30 at intermission, only to have Loras surge ahead 48-38.
           
But the final 15:45 was a Dutch defensive masterpiece. Loras, which came into the game averaging a league-best 80.6 points a game, was held to just eight points the rest of the way.
           
"I just can't talk enough about our defense," coach Joe Steinkamp said. "We just completely locked them up."
           
Loras was limited to 20.9% shooting in the second half. For the game, Central held a 43.1% to 28.4% advantage and outrebounded the Duhawks 46-39. That allowed the Dutch to overcome an uncharacteristic 18 turnovers while Loras had just three.
           
In the midst of the Central comeback, Steinkamp made a big gamble. Johnson drew his fourth foul at the 14:45 mark. But with nearly 10 minutes remaining and the Dutch trailing 50-48, Steinkamp brought Johnson back in off the bench.
           
"It's a little earlier than we normally would, but we really thought we needed to score so we wanted to try it and he was able to play the rest of the game," Steinkamp said. "And he was huge. We went to him a lot late and he made some big late shot-clock plays. He just had a great all-around game."
           
Johnson hit 12 of 15 shots from the floor, including a pair of 3-point goals. Center Joshua Van Gorp (junior, Pella, Pella Christian HS) had 13 points and guard Kade Terrell (5th-year, Montrose, Colo.) had nine.
           
Edwards had five points but did so much more.
           
"Drew just had a great all-around game," Steinkamp said. "He guarded their leading scorer and he had 14 rebounds. It seemed like he got all the loose ball rebounds. Loras is a really good offensive rebounding team so it's really important when you have guards that can come back and get it. Four assists, two turnovers. He doesn't score that much but his impact on the game is just unbelievable."
           
Points did not come easily for Central, either.
           
"Loras did a really good job on our guys," Steinkamp said. "They did a good job on Josh (Van Gorp) and really made him work for his shots. But our defense kept us in it and our offense made just enough plays."
           
Central returns home for a Wednesday women's-men's doubleheader with Wartburg College. The men's game starts at 7:30 p.m. at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium. Wartburg handed Central its first conference loss Jan. 4 at Waverly 80-69. The Knights are 10-10 overall and 7-4 in the conference after a 76-68 loss to Nebraska Wesleyan University at Waverly Wednesday.