PELLA, Iowa - - Hot shooting from the outside and a career game from freshman Nate Schimonitz gave Nebraska Wesleyan a key 93-86 road victory over Central College on Monday night (Jan. 23) in IIAC men's basketball action to start off the week of three road games for the Prairie Wolves.
 
Nebraska Wesleyan shot 16-32 (50%) from 3-point range to overcome a three-point halftime deficit en route to the road victory.  The Prairie Wolves shot 59.4 percent from the field in the second half, led by the strong performance by Schimonitz.
 
Schimonitz, coming off a season-high 27 points on Saturday, was even more impressive two days later on the road.  The freshman point guard went 13-18 from the field, 4-7 from 3-point land and 4-4 at the free throw line to score 34 points.  He poured in 25 of those points in the second half, for the highest output of any NWU player during the 2016-17 season.
 
In a trend that is developing across the Iowa Conference this year, the game was a back and forth thriller that came down to the final seconds.  NWU led by three points with just under two minutes remaining and both teams had empty possessions.  Cooper Cook gave the Prairie Wolves a two possession lead with a clutch 3-pointer giving NWU a 90-84 advantage with just over 40 seconds remaining.
 
Central College missed a 3-pointer on their end of the court and Deion Wells-Ross pulled down the rebound.  He was fouled and went 1-2 at the free throw line to stretch the game to a three possession lead.  Schimonitz then sealed the victory as he stole the ball and put the icing on the cake with a layup to send the Prairie Wolves on the road victorious.
 
The Dutch got out of the gates fast as NWU had their usual slow start on the road.  Central built up a 14-5 lead five minutes into the game.  From there, the Prairie Wolves responded scoring 14 unanswered points to go back up by five points.  The lead would continue to change hands as Central went into the break with a 45-42 lead.
 
In the second half, there were seven more lead changes and Central led 82-80 with just over five minutes left.  Schmonitz scored eight consecutive points for the Prairie Wolves and they would never trail again.
 
The Prairie Wolves ended the game 47.2 percent from the floor, 50.0 percent on 3-pointers and 9-12 from the free throw line.  NWU was far from a one man show as Schimonitz had plenty of help on the night.
 
Cooper Cook regained his scoring form putting up 22 points with eight rebounds, going 5-8 from 3-point land.  Deion Wells-Ross scored 13 points in the first half and finished with 16 total to go along with seven rebounds.  Ryan Garver also came off the bench to score 15 points, making 2-3 on 3-pointers with six rebounds, three assists and two steals. 
 
Central was led by Colby Taylor with 22 points, while Pete Walker came off the bench to score 19 points in a game he was not expected to play because of injury.
 
NWU has little time to celebrate as they have a huge test on Wednesday night traveling to IIAC leader Buena Vista in Storm Lake, Iowa.  The Beavers only IIAC loss on the year was to NWU in December.