PELLA—Torrid 3-point shooting carried Wartburg College to a lead it never relinquished in an 84-63 Iowa Conference victory over the Central College women's basketball team Saturday.
The Knights' Maddie Sadecky drilled 7-of-7 first-half 3-pointers and Wartburg (6-0 overall, 2-0 conference) was 9-of-10 from long range in taking a 49-28 halftime lead.
"We were not covering her well at all," coach Jerry Nikkel said. "Every one she made you could see her confidence going up and we were not doing anything to disrupt her. She did a great job."
Sadecky was scoreless in the second half but the damage was done.
Meanwhile Central's offense was a late arrival. The Dutch (3-5 overall, 0-2 conference) were down 12-0 before finally cracking the scoring column at the 15:21 mark.
"It took us so long to get started," Nikkel said. "It was 9-0 and we had not even had a shot. I told the team afterwards, we've got to find people who are ready to play the first 10 seconds of the game.
"We got much more aggressive once we started scoring. We have to be an aggressive team all the time."
Forward Kelsey Schuring had 18 points and nine rebounds for the Dutch.
"That's the best she's shot it all year," Nikkel said.
Center Haley Brillhart made a promising season debut. She got a late start following volleyball season but managed to open with a double-double, scoring 12 points with 10 rebounds in 22 minutes.
"She had a good outing after only five days of practice," Nikkel said. "It was good to see a little bit of what we saw from her last year. She'll get there. The big thing right now is her conditioning. We need to get her to the point where she can play more minutes."
Wartburg outshot Central 46.6 percent to 38.5 while Central held a 45-35 rebounding advantage. But the Dutch committed 24 turnovers.
Central makes a weekend trip to St. Louis, taking on traditional power Washington-St. Louis (Mo.) next Friday at 7 p.m. before meeting Webster (Mo.) Saturday at 1 p.m. Washington-St. Louis is ranked No. 6 in the NCAA Division III and took a 4-1 record into a Saturday evening game with Elmhurst College (Ill.). Central lost its last contest with Washington-St. Louis in 2008 and the teams' all-time series is tied 2-2.