GRINNELL, Iowa – The Grinnell College men's basketball team will go into winter break feeling great after rolling past Central College 134-102 Wednesday night at Darby Gymnasium.
 
The contest featured plenty of excitement, including three technical fouls on the Dutch. The victory stretched the Pioneers' winning streak to six games as they moved to 6-3, while the visitors dipped to 4-5.
 
Grinnell, which made a season-best 32 free throws, featured a balanced scoring attack as Jackson Qualley '21 had 28 points, Patrick Simms '22 added 27 and Hannes Kogelnik '21 put in 26. Zachary Stice '21 tallied 18 points on six 3-pointers, a trey total equaled by Kogelnik and one more than Qualley.
 
Will Bebee '22 grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked five shots, Simms dished out six assists and Qualley, Brady Vest '21, Aiden Gilbert '23 and Will Dubow '21 added three steals each. The steal totals for Vest and Gilbert were career highs.
 
As a team, Grinnell blocked 10 shots which ranks among the top 10 totals in program history.
 
Grinnell was never challenged, scoring 13 of the 15 points in the game. After Simms' layup was matched by a Dutch basket, Stice, Qualley and Kogelnik made consecutive 3-pointers and Vest a layup to put the Pioneers up 13-2 not even two minutes into the game.
 
Central got as close as seven midway through the half, but Simms then went wild with a layup, 3-pointer and close-range jumper to push the Pioneers ahead 30-16. They continued to cruise and led 79-55 at intermission.
 
Kogelnik had a huge second half in which he sank six consecutive free throws with 7:11 left after the Dutch were whistled with three straight technical fouls. Grinnell got ahead by as many as 39 before winning by 32.
 
Grinnell is off until Jan. 3 when it hosts Lake Forest College in a Midwest Conference game at Darby Gymnasium. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m.