Box Score
St. Cloud State had an answer for every Augustana rally as the Huskies outlasted the Vikings 96-90 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men's basketball action Saturday night at the Elmen Center.
The loss drops Augustana to 14-6 overall and 8-5 in the NSIC. St. Cloud State, meanwhile, improved to 15-6 overall and 9-4 in the league.
Augustana, which trailed 36-26 at halftime, tried make a charge midway through the second half. Trailing 57-45 with just under 12 minutes to play in the game,
Derrick De Zeeuw converted a 3-point play and
Cody Schilling drained a 3-pointer to cut the lead in half at 57-51 with 11;08 on the clock.
However, St. Cloud State called timeout to silence the home crowd of 2,473. The tactic worked as the Huskies came out of the timeout and went on a 12-2 run over the next 3 minutes to take their largest lead of the game at 69-53 with just under 8 minutes remaining in the game.
The Vikings used a 3-pointer by
Eric Krogman and 4 more points from Schilling to close within single digits at 69-60, but back-to-back Husky baskets pushed the margin to 73-60 with 4:47 left.
From there, St. Cloud State relied on its free throw shooting, making 21 of 22 charity tosses in the final 5 minutes. At one point the Huskies made16 straight free throws.
Augustana tried to make a final run as the Vikings hit 4 3-pointers in the final 1:10, the last coming from
Marques Blank with 16.5 seconds left on the clock to make the score 94-88. However, SCSU's Taylor Witt iced the game with 2 more free throws.
Augustana shot 58.3 percent from the field in the second half, making 21 of 36 shots. However, it wasn't enough to offset a 35.7 percent effort (10 of 28) in the first half. During one stretch in the first half the Vikings went 5:05 without a basket.
The Vikings trailed 15-10 with 13 minutes left in the half, but they responded with an 8-0 run, capped by a bucket by
Lee Stephens at 8:23 to take an 18-15 lead. However, SCSU countered with a 9-1 run to regain the lead at 24-19 with 5:12 on the clock. Augie's next basket came from Krogman at the 3:18 mark, ending the field goal drought.
Stephens sank a pair of free throws with just under 3 minutes left in the half to cut the Huskies' lead to 26-24, but St. Cloud State closed out the half by outscoring Augustana 10-2 to take a 36-26 halftime lead.
Krogman led four Vikings in double figures with 27 points, inlcuding 19 in the second half. He also grabbed a game-high 9 rebounds. Blank poured in 19 points, while Schilling and Stephens finished with 15 and 10 points, respectively.
Witt led St. Cloud State with a game-high 30 points and 9 assists. Brett Putz scored 16 points, while Jesse Fisher scored 15 points off the bench. Matt Schneck chipped in with 14 points and 9 boards.
Augustana will have a week off before returning to the court on Saturday, February 7 against Wayne State. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.