St. Catherine (Minn.) took advantage of a 7-minute Central College scoring drought and coasted to an 87-56 women's basketball victory in the Nebraska Wesleyan Tip-Off Tournament Friday.

Central (1-1) was competitive in the early going, taking a 16-14 lead with 13:29 left in the first half. But St. Catherine (1-0) went on a 13-0 run to take command at 27-16 with 5:53 remaining. The Dutch were never closer than nine points the rest of the way and trailed 48-27 at intermission.

"I thought we came out of the chute looking really good," coach Jerry Nikkel said. "But then we went 8 minutes without scoring. Once they got a double-digit lead on us, they cruised. They really shot the ball well, but part of that was our defense. We didn't take away the things they wanted to do."

The Wildcats shot a red-hot 61.4 percent from the field, including 65.6 percent in the first half. Central hit 39.0 percent and was outrebounded 39-21. The only player with more than two rebounds was point guard Cory Bacon, who had four.

"We're going to be shorter than every team we play, especially inside," Nikkel said. "But you can handle bigger players if you do a better job of positioning."

Guard Jordan Waddell topped the Central scoring chart again with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting. She hit three 3-point goals. Forward Nicole Strasko and forward Steph Hasken  each scored nine points.

Nikkel got an early look at his bench, as all 13 Central players saw action.

"We saw some things," he said. "I thought Alexis Andrews showed some promising signs."

Central plays at 2 p.m. Saturday in the third-place game, meeting the loser of Friday's second contest, matching host Nebraska Wesleyan against Martin Luther (Minn.).