ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (3-22, 2-16 NSIC) saw #9 Augustana (20-2, 14-2 NSIC) pull away late in an 88-72 loss at Gangelhoff Center on Friday night.
The Golden Bears buried 8-12 (66.7%) from beyond the arc in the opening half to keep it within five points, but the Vikings continued to control play on the glass to make it 21 wins in the row while dropping CSP to 5-28 in the all-time series.
Concordia connected on double-digit threes for the ninth time on the season as they finished the night at 11-26 (42.3%) from three-point range and 26-55 (47.3%) overall from the floor.
The Vikings did more of their damage down low as they finished with a 42-28 edge in points in the paint while using a 42-22 edge on the glass, including a 16-4 edge on the offensive glass, for an 18-4 edge in second chance points. Augie also utilized a 22-0 advantage in fast break points as well as an 18-6 edge in points off turnovers while Concordia received more production from their bench with a 20-4 advantage in bench scoring.
The duo of
Caden Hoffman and
Ian Sluice shouldered the load from deep as Hoffman knocked down 6-10 from three-point range for a season-best 18 points while Sluice hit 6-10 from the floor and 4-8 from beyond the arc for a career-high 16 points. They were especially impressive in the opening 20 minutes as they combined to go 7-9 from three for 21 points before the break. Hoffman added six assists and four rebounds while Sluice pulled down a pair of boards.
Elijah Ormiston once again paced the squad in scoring as he finished with a team-best 21 points on the night on 9-16 shooting to go along with four rebounds. The freshman reached 20+ points for the 10
th time in 18 NSIC contests and 12
th time overall.
Marcus Skeete added eight points, seven rebounds and four assists in the game.
Tyler Riemersma and Adam Dykman each contributed double-doubles in the win for the Vikings as Riemersma had 23 points, 12 boards and four assists while Dykman had 13 points and 13 boards. Isaac Fink added 20 points on 6-11 from deep in the win.
An early 7-2 run for the Vikings extended their lead from 8-7 to 15-9 four minutes in. CSP responded with six of the next eight to trim it to 17-15 a minute and a half later, but Augie had it back out to eight at 25-17 with 10:56 to go in the half following a 6-0 run. That lead grew to as many as nine in the opening half at 38-29 before a 10-4 burst capped by threes from Hoffman and Sluice had the Golden Bears back within three in the final minute. A late Riemersma bucket pushed it to 44-39 at the break.
Hoffman and Ormiston got the Golden Bears going early in the second half with nine of the first 15 points to make it a one possession game at 51-48 with 16:08 to play, but an 8-0 Vikings run gave Augie their first double digit lead of the night at 59-48. Concordia trimmed it back to eight a couple times over the next few minutes, but that would be all the closer they would get as Augie closed out the win. The lead reached as many as 18 in the final few minutes as Augustana sealed an 88-72 win.
Concordia is back in action tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. as they take on Wayne State at Gangelhoff Center.
