News Release

PELLA, Iowa — First place Wartburg College was pushed to the limit by Central College Saturday, but escaped with a 59-54 Iowa Conference men’s basketball win.

Wartburg, 10-0 in league play and 16-3 overall, trailed much of the first half and the game was tied at 28-28 at the break.

But Central (2-9 conference, 4-15 overall) was slow out of the blocks in the second half. Wartburg stretched a 32-21 advantage to 43-33 with 12:06 left. The Dutch rallied late, climbing to within 56-52 on a layup by center Clint Driftmier with 1:10 left, then forced a Wartburg miss with 31 seconds remaining. But in the scramble for the rebound, Wartburg guard Jason Steege got a timeout as he fell with the ball out of bounds. Central was forced to foul and the Knights converted at the line to settle the issue.

“It seems like we always have one stretch when we have trouble taking care of the basketball and those times get us in a hole we can’t get out of,” coach Mike Boschee said. “Take away the first five minutes of the second half, and it would be a different game.”

Steege led Wartburg with 13 points while Driftmier was the only Central player to crack double figures with 10. Wartburg outshot Central, 50.0 percent to 46.3 percent, outrebounded the Dutch, 25-22, and forced 21 Central turnovers.

Still Boschee was encouraged by Central’s performance after a dismal showing in Friday night’s loss to Cornell.

“We played some pretty good basketball,” he said. “I appreciated how they battled and how hard they played.”

Central travels to Indianola to meet Simpson College Wednesday at 8 p.m. in another Iowa Conference tilt.