Box Score
Postgame Audio
The Augustana men's basketball overcame an early shooting slump to defeat Mesa State 95-84 Sunday night in the NCAA Central Regional semifinal in Mankato, Minn. With the victory, the Vikings set a school record for victories with 24 and advance to the NCAA Central Region final.
In Saturday's opening round, the Vikings opened a large lead early against New Mexico Highlands by shooting over 59 percent in the opening half. Tonight, the Vikings came out sluggish, with Mesa State disrupting the Vikings' offensive rhythm, holding them to 11 made field goals on 32 attempts (34.4 percent) in the first half.
Mesa State's Mike Dominguez, who led all scorers with 41 points, scored 22 in the first half. His two free throws with 1:17 to play in the first half gave Mesa State its largest lead of the half at 41-33. However, a layup by
Derrick De Zeeuw cut the Maverick halftime lead to six at 41-35.
Despite cold shooting, Augie kept the game close by maintaining a sizeable rebound margin. For the second straight game, the Vikings outrebounded their opponent by a double digit margin. Augie collected 55 caroms to Mesa State's 37, and 19 Vikings offensive boards contributed to 18 second chance points.
Early in the second half,
Jordan Dalton was called for a technical foul, and Dominguez converted two free throws and scored a layup on the possession to give Mesa State its largest lead at 47-37 with 17:42 to play.
But as they had done the previous night, the Vikings were able to find some offensive rhythm and put together a substantial scoring run to put the game almost out of reach. Over the next 13:21, the Vikings outscored the Mavericks 45-17 to increase the Augustana advantage to 18 with 4:21 remaining.
Cameron McCaffrey scored 11 of his team-high 18 points during the run, as the Vikings shot 13-of-24 (54 percent), including 6-of-9 from three-point range, and were 9-of-10 from the foul line. Conversely, the Viking defense forced five Maverick turnovers and held them to 30 percent from the field (6-of-20).
Mesa State put together one final run of its own. A three-point field goal by Brian Kenshalo capped a 20-8 run that brought the Mavericks within six at 90-84 with 48 seconds to play, but the Vikings converted 5-of-6 free throws and held Mesa State scoreless the rest of the way for the 95-84 victory.
Cody Schilling scored 17, while
David Foster tallied 15.
Nathan Truex finished the night with 14 points and 9 rebounds.
The Vikings will face St. Cloud State in Tuesday night's regional final. The game is scheduled to tip at 7 p.m. in Mankato, Minn.
