Women's Basketball Stymied by Central
Feb 5, 2020
PELLA, Iowa – The Central Dutch prevented the University of Dubuque women’s basketball team from putting together back-to-back wins after the Spartans were upended by the Dutch on Wednesday night, 76-56.
With the score tied at 5-5 through three minutes of play, Central would go on a 10-0 run over the next two and a half minutes and would eventually take a 13-point lead into the second quarter. That 13-point UD deficit, quickly became a 20 point deficit by the time two minutes had gone by in the second quarter, as Central opened the quarter scoring eight of the first 10 points. Midway through the quarter the Spartans defense began to stifle to Dutch offense, as UD would allow just two Central points over the final 5:53 of the half and scored the final nine points to get within 10 points at 36-26 by halftime.
UD opened the second half scoring with a quick 5-0 burst in the first 60 seconds of the third quarter to pull within five, the closest they had been since it was 10-5. That UD deficit would hold between five and 11 points for the remainder of the third and would go into the final frame trialing by eight points.
An Alli Bailey jumper to being the fourth cut the Central lead down to six points, but that was as close as the Spartans were able to get over the final 9:30 as the Dutch would go on a 23-4 run over the next six minutes to halt any UD comeback attempt.
Alli Bailey was an efficient 5-9 from the field on her way to a team-high 15 points, while also making all five or her free throw attempts. Miah Smith came up just one point and two rebounds shy of yet another double-double, as she posted a nine point, eight rebound performance against the Dutch.
The Spartan defense forced Central into 18 turnovers, with nine different Spartans recording at least one steal.
The Spartans three game road stretch closes on Saturday with a trip to Storm Lake, Iowa to take on Buena Vista at 2 p.m.
