DECORAH—Displaying some much-needed road resilience at a place where wins have been elusive, the Central College women's basketball team nabbed a 76-69 victory at  Luther College Saturday.
           
It was the first Dutch victory at Decorah since 2014, ending a nine-game skid, and only their second in their last 22 trips there, dating to 2001.
           
Guard Abby Johnson (junior, Ankeny) rained in five 3-point buckets en route to a career-high 26 points for the Dutch (9-8 overall, 3-5 American Rivers), who withstood multiple Luther surges. Central trailed by as many as eight points in the second quarter but closed the half with a 16-5 burst to lead 38-35 at the break. Luther regained command in the third quarter and was up 61-53 with only 6:55 left in the contest, however, an all-too familiar spot for the Dutch in past road contests.
           
But this time Johnson helped author a different ending. She delivered eight consecutive points, including back-to-back 3-pointers to trigger a 10-0 run for a 63-61 Central lead.
           
"That was one of the biggest things that I said in the locker room was to just fight," coach Justin Weiland said. "It can go two ways when you get down. You can lay down and continue to be the punching bag or you grit your teeth, dig in and punch back and that's exactly what we did."
           
Johnson was the spark.
           
"Abby just went bonkers in that fourth quarter," Weiland said. "She obviously kind of took us along for a ride on the offensive end but it took all five on the floor, just everybody that played tonight, to keep the energy high and grit that one out."
           
Central also got 13 points from center Allison Van Gorp (junior, Pella, Pella Christian HS) but Weiland also pointed to the Dutch dominance on the glass. Luther (8-9 overall, 3-5 conference) entered the game as the top rebounding team in the conference but Central held a 48-29 advantage, led by Van Gorp's nine. Johnson and guard Kassidi Steel (senior, New Sharon, North Mahaska HS) each pulled down six.
           
Central was outshot from the field, 42.2% to 40.4%.
           
Defense also played a pivotal role in Central's finishing kick.
           
"Our defense got way more physical," Weiland said. "We made it way harder to score. But the other part of it was we just stopped turning the ball over and that's what had led to a lot of their points.
           
"There are just so many things to love about this game."
           
Central is home Saturday to take on No.  11-ranked Wartburg College to start the second round of the conference's round-robin slate. It's a women's-men's doubleheader at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium with the women's game starting at 2 p.m. The Knights are 15-2 overall and 8-0 in the conference after prevailing over Coe College 52-45 at Waverly Wednesday. Wartburg stifled the Dutch 65-41 at Waverly Dec. 2. Saturday's games will be broadcast on KRLS-FM (92.1) with Tyler Crabb calling the action. A video webcast and live stats can be accessed through the Central athletics website at athletics.central.edu and the audio broadcast will be available at kniakrls.com.