SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – No. 1 seed Augustana University defeated No. 4 seed Nebraska-Kearney (21-12) 77-67 in front of 2,751 fans at the Sanford Pentagon Sunday night to advance to the NCAA Central Region Championship game on Tuesday. The Vikings (30-2) will play for the region title for the third time in program history, its first since 2010.
 
Augustana has now won 30 or more games in back-to-back seasons. Augustana won a program record 31 games in 2014-15.


 
The Vikings shot the lights out in the second half finishing 16 of 27 (59.3 percent) from the field. Augustana had four players in double-figures, led by Daniel Jansen's 19 points. Jansen added nine rebounds and was 7 of 14 from the field and 5 of 5 from the free throw line.
 
Casey Schilling picked up his 12th double-double of the season (33rd career) finishing with 17 points and 10 rebounds to go along with four assists and four steals. Schilling moved up to second all-time in scoring at Augustana passing former all-time leading scorer Cameron McCaffrey. Schilling has scored 1,976 career points.
 
John Warren had a big night off the bench for the Vikings going 4 of 4 from the field to finish with eight points. Adam Beyer added five points and three assists on the night.  
 
Nebraska-Kearney got 31 points from Connor Baranek and finished the game shooting 51.8 percent from the field.
 
Alex Richter pitched in with 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting and Jordan Spencer nearly picked up his second straight double-double finishing with 10 points, eight assists and four rebounds.  
 
Augustana and Nebraska-Kearney battled back-and-forth throughout the first half until the Vikings got a spark from Schilling at the tail end of a 14-5 run that allowed Augustana to take a double-digit lead.
 
The two teams played to four tie scores through nearly 10 minutes until the Vikings started to go to work down low. Augustana scored 12 points in the paint over the next 5:39 while converting a pair of 3-point-plays.
 
Beyer gave Augustana a 26-21 lead with his first 3-pointer of the night and three minutes later Schilling hit another from the top of the key and followed that up with a steal on the defensive end and a one-handed flush in transition to put his team in front 37-26 with 2:50 remaining in the half.
 
The Lopers scored five straight points to close-out the first half and the Vikings took a six-point lead into the break at 37-31.
 
Jansen led the Vikings with 14 points in the first half going 6 of 10 from the field. Augustana finished the half shooting 46.9 percent (15 of 32) from the field, connecting on 3 of 7 from behind the arc. Schilling added seven points and five rebounds in the first half.
 
UNK shot 46.4 percent (13 of 28) from the field in the first half and was led by Beranek's 18 points.
 
Augustana quickly built its lead back up to double-digits in the second half going on a 7-2 run to open the half to go in front 44-33. The early run didn't break the Lopers as they were able to answer with six straight points to start a 10-3 run cutting Augustana's lead down to four at 47-43.
 
Just like in the first half, the Vikings answered UNK by going to work in the paint scoring 14 of their next 15 points in the paint over a five-plus minute stretch to build the lead back up to 11 at 62-51.
 
Ty Danielson hit a 3-pointer for UNK that got his team within eight with just under four minutes remaining in the game but the Vikings were able to break the press and push the floor to build the lead back up to 10 after Richter broke free for a bucket and on the next possession was sprung loose for a hard two-handed dunk that put Augustana up 73-61 with 2:18 remaining in the game.
 
Warren sent the crowd into a roar with another two-handed flush with 45 seconds to play and the Vikings went on to defeat the Lopers 77-67 to advance to the region title game for the first time since 2010.
 
Augustana will take on No. 2 seed Northwest Missouri State in the NCAA Central Region Championship game on Tuesday, March 15 at 7 p.m. at the Sanford Pentagon.