A victory over Cornell College Saturday gave the Central College women's basketball team reason for optimism but the Dutch weren't able to accelerate their momentum Monday night, tumbling at the Univ. of Dubuque, 78-57.

Central (4-12 overall, 1-6 Iowa Conference) led 7-6 after nearly 5 minutes of play but it was all Dubuque the rest of the night. The Spartans (5-11 overall, 2-5 conference) muscled their way to a 39-24 halftime lead and Central drew no closer than nine points in the second half.

Forward Nicole Strasko continued her recent improvement for the Dutch with 17 points and seven rebounds.

"We were getting her the ball just around the basket and she was able to get around the defender and score," coach Jerry Nikkel said. "She did a pretty nice job for us.

"But other than that we really played poorly. It's hard to take because we played so well Saturday and I couldn't wait to get on the floor tonight. But we gave them way too many easy shots and we had 28 turnovers, which really hurt us."

Forward Haley Brillhart added nine points and guard Sarah Paulson had eight.

The Dutch hit only 17-of-55 from the floor (30.9 percent) while Dubuque was 25-of-60 (41.7 percent). The Spartans held a slight 42-41 rebounding edge.

Central has a day to turn things around before taking on Buena Vista Univ. Wednesday in a women's-men's doubleheader at 6 p.m. in P.H. Kuyper Gym. The Beavers (7-9 overall, 3-4 conference) nearly pulled off a huge upset Monday night, pushing first-place Simpson to the wire before dropping a 78-77 decision.

A video webstream and live stats of Wednesday's games will be available through the Central athletics website at www.central.edu/athletics.