The University of Minnesota Duluth never looked outmatched on the court, but No. 9 Augustana (S.D.) College used its size and speed to make small mistakes look larger as the Vikings downed the Bulldogs 95-69 at Romano Gym on Saturday evening in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference competition.
UMD (9-9, 6-6 NSIC) finishes a 3-1 home stand before setting back out on the road next weekend, while the top-rated Vikings (17-1, 11-1 NSIC) continued their storm through the NSIC.
HIGHLIGHTS• Senior center
Brett Ervin scored 20 points, one of four Bulldogs to reach double-digits scoring. Freshman guard
Kyle Schalow added six points off the bench, while freshman center
Brody Jackson added four in the closing minutes. Junior guard
Taylor Lavery led the way with six rebounds, while adding ten points. Sophomore
Justin Byrd had four points, four assists, and a steal.
• Four players went for double figures with three topping 18 or more for Augustana. Junior forward Daniel Jansen hit 14-of-15 free throws to finish with a ame-high 29 points, while junior forward Casey Schilling with 8-of-17 from the floor for 21. Jansen added 10 rebounds to round out a double-double while Schilling and junior forward Alex Richter each added eight.
While Augustana came down to an efficient 49.2 percent for their game, they were outstanding, 59.3 percent shooting in the first half as they opened a 53-39 lead at the break after the Bulldogs had held a lead of as many as seven early in the opening frame. The Vikings made good on 9-of-13 three-point attempts and 11-of-14 trips to the line to create a large margin despite scoring just a basket more than UMD who, for their part, shot 51.7 percent in the first half and 45.0 percent for the game. "It was a disappointing loss, but I was impressed with Augustana's team. They were efficient, beat us to a lot of loose balls, and they shot extremely well," said head coach
Matt Bowen after the game. "We competed for stretches of times, but the difference was we could not remain consistent enough to match their output. We got it back to single digits once in the second half, but didn't have enough to get to a competitive game again."
As a team that likes to force fouls, the Bulldogs fell victim to their own, fouling 18 times to send the Vikings to the line 27 times, of which they made good on 22 chances. "They beat us at our own game. They were the aggressor. They attacked us and got to the line," said Bowen. Adding to that, Augustana went 4-of-7 from three-point range in the second half to bring their total to 65.0 percent, a margin the Bulldogs couldn't match, going 6-of-16. "We have to do a better job of handling the zone defense next time we see it. We had done it previously. It dictates the pace of the game a little bit differently. Man-to-man, they struggled guarding us, but [the zone] took away a bit of our aggressiveness, our speed, our athletism, and forced us to make decisions that we couldn't execute as well as we needed."
"I like what we're doing a lot right now. We've increased our point-per-game quite a bit the last four-five games. I think we're coming into our own. We did what we needed to do. It was paramount that we won 3-of-4 games. Having a top-ten team in the nation coming to our place, we were hoping we'd give ourselves a chance to win four in a row. We had the opportunity, but got beat by a better team tonight."
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UP NEXT
The Bulldogs conclude their homestand tomorrow evening as the No. 9-ranked Augustana (S.D.) College comes to Romano Gym for another NSIC interdivisional match-up. Opening tip is set for 6:00 p.m., following the women's contest.
