The Loras College men's basketball team dropped their road contest with the Central College Dutch on Wednesday night, 69-59. The closely contested game saw the Duhawks take a lead into halftime, but neither team lit up the scoreboard, after coming into the game as the league's highest scoring teams.

Connor Mooney led Loras with 15 points and Tim Kelly added 12 points and nine rebounds to help Loras make things interesting, but in the end senior big man Loren Liming was too much to handle on Wednesday night. Liming dropped in 27 points, most from close range, on 12-of-19 shooting and added five rebounds and two blocks to lead the Dutch to their first regular season Iowa Conference title since 1995. Only a dunk by Jordan Harrelson in the second half spoiled Liming's night. Harrelson took off from the middle of the lane after cutting to the basket and used two hands and zero dribbles on his way to giving Liming a good look at the #24 on the front of his jersey during the slam.

The Duhawks dropped to 8-5 in the Iowa Conference and are part of a major log jam behind the Dutch with just three games to go in the regular season. The team will continue their pursuit of a home game to open the IIAC Tournament on Saturday when they host the also 8-5 Dubuque Spartans at 4:00 PM in the AWC. Saturday's game includes some festivities for the alums of the basketball program and follows the women's team's efforts to raise money for breast cancer awareness as part of the Pinkzone.