ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – The Augustana men’s basketball team suffered its first loss of the season on Sunday afternoon, falling 82-61 to Missouri Western State to close the Hillyard Tipoff Classic against the host school.
The Vikings fall to 1-1 on the year while the Griffons move to 3-1, including a 3-0 record against NSIC opponents.
Tanner Te Slaa led the Vikings with 12 points on 4 of 4 shooting from the field while grabbing three rebounds. Kelton Coleman added 11 points off the bench. Sam Rensch scored eight points and grabbed a pair of steals while Tameron Ferguson had five points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals.
After a 5-0 opening from MWSU, Rensch scored on back-to-back possessions to get within 5-4 at the 16:30 mark of the first half. The Griffons scored 15 of the next 19 points before a Brady Helgren dunk with 10:22 left in the half ended the run and brought the Vikings to a 20-10 deficit.
The game balanced for a four minute segment as a Coleman layup cut the MWSU lead to 29-21 with 6:23 left in the half but a Griffon 3-pointer on the next possession started a 15-9 run that saw the Griffons increase their lead to 44-30 into the locker room.
Rensch opened the second half scoring nearly three and a half minutes in with a layup and six Te Slaa points helped lead an 8-4 run and bring the Vikings within 10 at 48-38 with 15:38 to go.
That would be the closest deficit the rest of the way as MWSU jumped ahead 15 with 13:38 remaining and added a 14-4 run to lead 70-47 with 8:53 left. The 23-point lead held near the buzzer but a Coleman layup just before time expired brought the game to its final score.
The Vikings return to action next week when they travel west to take on South Dakota School of Mines at 5:30 p.m., on Friday.
–GoAugie.com–
