Guard Rachel Lenox had 17 points, two assists, four rebounds and four steals for the Dutch. Guard Aimee Schmidt had nine points, seven boards and seven assists while center Ashley Nekola had a game-high 10 rebounds.
St. Olaf was playing its season opener and the young Oles suffered through a miserable start, getting shut out for nearly seven minutes. Central extended its lead to 19-2 before St. Olaf rattled off 12 unanswered points. It was 23-22 Central with 2:40 left, but the Dutch scored the last five points for a 28-22 lead at intermission.
Coach Mick Angel told his team that he anticipated the Oles comeback.
“I told them, ‘Don’t panic about that,’” Angel said. “You know they’re going to make a run. I just look at giving up only 22 points in the first half. That’s good defense.”
St. Olaf made an early five-point run to cut the lead to 28-27 in the second half, before the Dutch took control.
“I was happy with the overall effort,” Angel said. “We talked about limiting fouls and we did that. That was big for us, because we hadn’t done that in our earlier games. We were giving up a lot of free throws.”
Central committed just 13 fouls on the night.
The Dutch get a short Thanksgiving break, then head to the Wis.-La Crosse Invitational. Central opens with Ripon College (Wis.) Friday at 5 p.m.