PELLA—Coe College knocked down four straight free throws in the final 24 seconds to escape the Central College women's basketball team Saturday, 66-61.

Coe, the defending Iowa Conference co-champs, couldn't shake the Dutch until then. Central (3-10 overall, 0-4 conference) was within 28-24 at intermission, then rallied to take a 47-44 lead with 9:23 remaining. Coe (11-2 overall, 4-1 conference) used a 7-0 burst for a 62-54 advantage with 2:52 left, but Central answered with a 5-0 run and had the ball trailing 62-59 in the final minute, only to come up empty.

Forward Nicole Strasko had 13 points while forward Alyssa Schwartz came off the bench to score 10 points with a team-high six rebounds. Sarah Paulson had nine points, four boards and three assists in just her second game in 13 months. Paulson sustained a season-ending knee injury in Dec., 2009, then spent the fall semester in London through Central Abroad.

"We talked about the fact that in the times we played well at Luther (Wednesday), we were the aggressor on the floor," coach Jerry Nikkel said. "And I thought we did a pretty good job of that today. What I told the team afterwards is we've got to play that hard all the time. We've got to practice that hard every day, not just when we're playing one of the conference contenders."

The Dutch committed a season-low 16 turnovers.

"That gives you that many more chances to score," Nikkel said. "We moved the ball a lot better. We really kept spacing well. Wednesday at Luther we didn't have a lot of movement."

Central shot 39.7 percent from the field to Coe's 39.3 percent and was outrebounded 41-33. The undersized Dutch started a lineup with no player taller than 5-foot-9.

"We had nine players who played at least 15 minutes and I thought that everyone made great contributions," Nikkel said.  "Alyssa Schwartz came off the bench and really played well for us. She played hard and took the ball aggressively to the basket. I thought Nicole Strasko went at the basket hard a few times and was able to draw a foul, which is something we haven't been doing. And we got some really nice play from Hilary Beaird. In practice she's really been stepping it up. She handled the quick passes really well. She's got nice hands."

Central heads to Indianola Wednesday for a league women's-men's doubleheader at Simpson College, starting at 6 p.m. Simpson, which shared the league crown with Coe last season, is 4-0 in league play and 10-3 overall. Central has lost 14 in a row to Simpson, last prevailing Feb. 2, 2002.