Augustana women’s basketball takes down Concordia-St. Paul
The Augustana women’s basketball team took down the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears 90-85 on Saturday, Feb. 15 after the Golden Bears lost control of the ball and committed eight turnovers in the first quarter.
The Vikings (15-9, 11-9 NSIC) and the Golden Bears (13-13, 10-10 NSIC) both went into the game with 10-9 NSIC records. Augustana came out with the third-place spot in the NSIC South standings, while Concordia-St. Paul dropped to sixth.
“I thought almost like last night with Mankato, we’re very matched teams. And if we make some critical plays and try to use the crowd’s energy to our advantage, it [would help],” Dave Krauth, Augustana women’s basketball coach, said.
The teams scored on each other back to back. Augustana and Concordia-St. Paul brought both power and drive from the start, ending the first quarter with a 19-19 tie.
“Our defense was lacking here and there, but I thought we moved the ball pretty well and handled their pressure,” Hora said.
In the second quarter, Augustana’s defense was lacking as the team failed to filter 5 of the ten three-pointer attempts.
The Vikings’ offense also dropped their accuracy in the second quarter, scoring 35.3% on field goals, 25% on three-pointers and 75% on free throws. By the end of the second quarter, the Golden Bears gained a four-point lead.
Coming back to the second half, the Vikings were energized. Scoring 28 points on Concordia-St. Paul, Augustana shot into a secure lead in the third quarter.
As the game came to a close, the Golden Bears matched the Vikings’ 28 points from the previous period but were not able to regain the lead. Augustana’s biggest lead was 12 points with 2:20 left in the fourth quarter.
According to Augustana senior Abby Hora, the Vikings and the Golden Bears played a high energy game just as with Mankato State the night prior.
“Last night’s game [against Mankato State] took a little bit out of us, where I don’t know if we were a half step slow physically but even decision-making,” Krauth said.
Overall, Augustana had a higher field goal percentage of 47% over Concordia-St. Paul’s 45.6, though Augustana did fall short in three-point and free throw percentages.
Contributing 27 of the 90 points the Vikings totaled, Hora scored a career high during the game.
“It’s not something you go into the game thinking about. It’s been a rough year for shooting, honestly, but things just came together,” Hora said. “It was pretty cool, for senior night especially.”
Though Krauth said that Hora can be inconsistent with her scoring, he still was impressed with her performance Saturday.
“She had a real nice game for us and hit some big shots,” Krauth said.
But Hora was not the only one who scored 27 points. Four of Concordia-St. Paul’s starters combined for 29 points, while the team’s shooting guard Danielle Schaub amassed 27 points alone. Schaub scored one-third of those points in one quarter.
Going forward, Hora said Augustana needs to work harder to build a better defense and practice better rebounding.
The Vikings will return to the Sanford Pentagon this Friday to play University of Sioux Falls (23-4, 16-4 NSIC) at 5:30 p.m. before traveling to Marshall, Minnesota, to take on Southwest Minnesota State University (14-11, 9-11 NSIC) at 4 p.m.
