Central College couldn't slow sharpshooting Coe College and suffered a 74-60 women's basketball defeat Wednesday night.

Coe outshot the Dutch 55.1 percent to 35.7, placing three players in double figures. They also outrebounded Central 35-29.

"We had too many defensive breakdowns," coach Mike Jacobsma said. "Part of that is from the traps on our press. We've got to have some rotation. You're going to give up some layups but you're hoping for more turnovers than layups."

Coe (6-2 overall, 3-0 Iowa Conference) jumped to a 15-4 lead and was up 35-26 at intermission. The Kohawks stretched the margin to 48-29 with 15:54 remaining, before Central (3-4 overall, 0-3 conference) knocked down three straight 3-point goals. The Dutch completed a 15-3 run to make it 51-44, then went scoreless for the next 4 minutes as Coe regained command.

"The kids fought back," Jacobsma said. "But the first half really hurt us. We got too far down. We've got to hit some shots and we've got to have more possessions."

Guard Sarah Paulson (senior, Ottumwa) had 14 points and seven rebounds while guard Alyssa Schwartz (junior, Titonka, WCLT HS) had 10 points.

Jacobsma also liked the effort of some of his younger players.

"I thought we got good minutes from Kalli Richardson (freshman, Blairsburg, Northeast Hamilton HS), Rachel Evans (freshman, Fort Dodge) and Hilary Beaird (sophomore, Burlington)," he said. "Those three off the bench played well."

Central returns to non-conference action for its remaining pre-Christmas games. The Dutch travel to Rock Island, Ill. Saturday to tackle Augustana College. The Vikings are 6-2 after a 61-38 romp past Robert Morris-Springfield (Ill.) Tuesday night.

"We can't get discouraged," Jacobsma said. "I feel like we've got some kids putting a lot of pressure on themselves. We've just got to go play."