Head coach Ryan Flack had no qualms with the way his basketball team battled back in the second half.

It was the dismal start to his team’s home opener that had him flummoxed.

The Marshalltown Community College men’s basketball team trailed by as many as 17 in the first half, rallied back to lead by no more than two points and eventually fell 75-69 to the Central College junior varsity squad on Tuesday night inside the Student Activity Center.

MCC (1-5) suffered its third-straight loss despite a brilliant second-half surge that saw the host Tigers outscore the visiting Dutch 43-37 after trailing by 12 at the half.

A late first-half surge helped the Tigers take some momentum into the intermission, and the lessons learned carried over into the second half.

“Yeah, we got five stops going into the second half, so that was positive, and we came out and got some more,” said Flack. “We picked up the pressure, we picked up full court, but it just wasn’t enough. We made so many mental errors, too many 50/50 balls went to them, we didn’t get on the floor. We are just not tough enough right now.

“We lack the leadership that we need, and that’s really disappointing because we have five sophomores back and it needs to start coming from them.”

Central sophomore Luke Houghland single-handedly sparked his team to the win, scoring a game-high 30 points thanks to five 3-pointers and 11-of-17 shooting from the field overall. Houghland picked up his fourth personal foul with 14:18 left in the game and went to the bench with his team up 11.

When Houghland returned, MCC had climbed to within 54-53 after a 14-3 Tiger run. Three-pointers for Shane Lieuw-On and Tristan Christopher sparked the surge, and a three-point play for Tre’Von Coney closed the margin to one.

Attacking the basket turned things around for the Tiger offense, whether it was resultant free throws or wide-open looks for shooters on the outside. MCC went 9-of-10 at the line during a six-minute stretch that featured back-and-forth basketball.

Coney cashed in two freebies for a 64-62 lead, but MCC didn’t score in its next four possessions and fell behind 69-64 with 53 seconds left. Houghland took the ball coast-to-coast for a contested layup and then sank a 3-pointer off an inbounds play to help the Dutch finish off the win in their season-opening game.

“Credit to Central, they came in and Houghland had a heck of a night,” said Flack. “He was a good player. But they were stronger than us, they were tougher than us, and that’s going to have to be our mindset. We’re going to have to get better at just wanting to play harder and tougher for 40 minutes, and we did not do that tonight.”

Houghland had 10 rebounds as well to lead Central to a 30-22 advantage on the glass. Isaac Runchey had 11 points and 10 boards as well for the Dutch, while Sam DeMeulenaere contributed 11 points off the bench.

Antoine Glasper made a pair of 3-pointers en route to a career-high 15 points to lead MCC. Christopher and Coney both finished with 10 points. Hassan Bush contributed eight points off the bench, while Tom Guma, Pavle Djeric and Gianluca Buffon added six points apiece.

MCC shot 7-of-25 from 3-point range but was 20-of-21 at the free-throw line.

“We settled for way too many threes that first half,” Flack said. “Maybe some of the guys who were shooting, that’s what they do, but we want to play inside-out and the ball needs to go inside, either through a pass or dribbling and getting a piece of the paint every single time. And when we do that, good things happen.”

The Tigers return to action this weekend with their Emerson Classic, hosting four games both Friday and Saturday. The MCC men face Rock Valley College on Friday and Bryant & Stratton on Saturday, both at 7 p.m.

The MCC women meet Rock Valley on Friday and Parkland on Saturday, both at 5 p.m.

“We had a great crowd tonight with our youth clinic, so I appreciate everybody coming out,” Flack said. “It really made the first home game fun, but the Emerson Classic is going to be a tough one this weekend. We play two pretty good teams and we’ve only got two days to prepare for them.”