Box ScoreThe Augustana women's basketball team ended their last-ever North Central Conference home game on a high note by defeating St. Cloud State 74-64 Saturday night at the Elmen Center.
With the win, Augie moved to 21-7 on the season and 7-4 in the NCC. St. Cloud State dropped to 11-15 and 3-8 in conference play.
Augustana's
Whitney Hofer earned herself a spot in the Viking record books as she recorded the fourth triple-double in Augustana women's basketball history with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
The two teams traded the lead throughout most of the first half. The Vikings gained the advantage at 24-22 after a 3-pointer by
Amy Puthoff with 6:26 to play in the half.
A bucket by SCSU's Kayla Rengel tied the score again before Rachel Booth converted a traditional 3-point play to take the lead 27-24. Another Augie trey by
Megan Doyle locked the score at 27-27 with 3 minutes on the clock.
St. Cloud State then outscored the Vikings 7-2 to take the halftime lead at 34-29.
The Vikings took control of the second half right away, outscoring the Huskies 16-6 in the first 7 minutes of the half to gain the lead, 45-40.
That's as close as the Huskies would come to the Vikings again as they continued to pull farther away. A trey from Puthoff at the 6-minute mark gave the Vikings their largest lead of the night at 60-47.
Two more 3-pointers from
Molly Hayes sealed the deal, and the Vikings walked off the court with a 74-64 victory.
The emotional highlight of Senior Night came from Augustana's lone senior
Ashley Holiday. Holiday, who tore her ACL in Augustana's 90-49 loss to North Dakota on February 2, missed the Vikings' last 3 games. She contributed 4 points and 4 rebounds in 10 minutes of playing time..
In addition to Hofer's triple-double, Puthoff recorded her first career double-double, tallying 25 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. Hayes added 15 points and
Dani Arens rounded out the double figures with 12 points.
Rachel Booth led St. Cloud State with 17 points and Katie Tacheny added 14.
The Vikings will conclude their regular season on Thursday, February 28, when they travel to Vermillion to take on South Dakota in a 6 p.m. contest.
