Three-point shooting gave Minnesota State Moorhead a large first half-lead which provided the cushion as they took down Augustana 69-60. The Vikings suffer their fifth loss of the season and hold a 16-5 overall record with a 12-5 mark in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The Dragons improve to 13-8 overall, 10-7 in the NSIC.
Morgan Zabel came off the bench to score 24 points for MSUM and she hit all 10 of her free throws. The Dragons hit 50 percent of their threes while Augustana was held to 37.3 shooting, 19.4 percent in the first half.
Alex Feeney scored 21 second-half points to finish with 25 total to lead the Vikings. Emily Schulte scored 11 and the Vikings were held to just eight free throws, their second-lowest total of the season.
MSU Moorhead jumped out to an 11-0 lead behind two threes from Marisa Yematich and the Vikings didn’t score until nearly five minutes into the game. Cami Koehn hit a layup with 15:09 remaining in the first half to break Augustana’s game-opening scoring drought.
Koehn hit a three-pointer to cut MSUM’s lead to eight, but the Dragons continued to shoot well and expanded their lead to 26-9 with less than nine minutes left in the half. Shaunteva Ashley’s three and Emily Bose’s free throws started a brief Viking comeback.
Riley Nordgaard hit one of here foul shots and Koehn fed Rhianna Gullickson for a layup and Gullickson finished it to cut the lead to 28-17. The Dragons finished the half on a 4-0 run and took a 32-17 lead into the intermission.
Augustana’s 12 first-half turnovers led to 14 points for MSU Moorhead. The Vikings only managed to shoot 19.4 percent (6-31) from the field in the first half including a dismal 2-16 from behind the arc. The Dragons hit five of their 10 three-point attempts and shot 37.5 percent overall in the first half.
The Vikings couldn’t get their deficit to single digits until Andrea Whitney used a Nordgaard pass to set up a layup. Whitney’s lay-in cut the lead to 43-34 before MSUM hit another three-point field goal.
The Dragons’ lead hovered between nine and 13 points for the majority of the second half and Augustana showed life late cutting the lead to six points with 51 seconds remaining, but that is the closest the score would get. MSU Moorhead clung to their large lead and finishes off the Vikigns with free throws to reach the 69-60 final score.
Courtesy: Eric Zahn, Assistant Sports Information Director, Augustana College
