Box Score
The Augustana men’s basketball team put together a well-balanced night of basketball to beat the Upper Iowa Peacocks 81-63 Friday night in the Elmen Center to earn their third win in a row.
With the win, Augustana also earns their third Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference win in a row and moved to 12-3 overall and 6-2 in NSIC play, while the Peacocks dropped their fifth-straight game to drop to 5-11 overall and 1-8 in NSIC action this season.
In the beginning, both teams traded baskets back and forth through four ties before Augustana took a 12-9 lead, at which point the Vikings went on a 9-4 run to take a 21-13 lead at the 14:13 mark.
After grabbing a loose ball, Chad Hettermann hit Mike Klepatz on a breakaway and as Klepatz went up for the layup, he was intentionally fouled. The three-point play led to a 28-17 Viking lead at the11:25 mark in the first half.
The Vikings went up by as many as 15 points in the first half, but the Peacocks continued to battle back, outscoring the Vikings 21-18 in the final 11 minutes of action to leave Augustana with a 46-38 lead going into halftime.
David Foster led all Vikings scorers with 13 points in the first half and Cody Schilling put it in 8 points on 3 of 3 shooting, while Marques Blank scored 7 points for Augie.
Collectively, Augustana shot a blazing 59 percent from the field in the first half, making 17 of 29 shots, including 5 of 9 shooting from 3-point range.
The Peacocks shot 57 percent from the field in the first half on 16 of 28 shooting.
Upper Iowa came out of halftime firing on all cylinders as the Peacocks put together a 7-2 run to start the half to bring the score to within three at 48-45 at the 17:10 mark in the second half.
But the Peacock run was short-lived as three points was as close as Upper Iowa would get in the second half.
The Vikings silenced Upper Iowa with a 9-1 run of their own to bring the score to 57-46 at the12-minute mark of the second half.
Augustana continued to keep up the pressure to gain its largest lead at 81-61 with 2:23 to go in the game and went on to outscore the Peacocks 35-25 in the second half.
Augie finished the night shooting 44 percent from the field on 27 of 62 shooting and caused the Peacocks to turn the ball over 22 times to Augustana’s 10 in the game.
Four Vikings finished scoring in double digits as Schilling led Augie with 18 points, while Eric Krogman got things going in the second half and finished the game with 17 points and 5 rebounds. Foster ended the night with 13 points and Blank put in12 points to balance out the scoring.
Keith Steffeck scored a game-high 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting on the night for the Peacocks.
The Vikings will be back at home tomorrow to take on defending national champion Winona State at 8:05 p.m. in the Elmen Center. The game will be televised on Midcontinent Communications (MC 23 in Sioux Falls).