Box Score
The Augustana women's basketball team made 9 of 10 free throws in the final two minutes to finish off the Winona State Warriors 71-57 in a balanced Viking attack Saturday night in front of 1,864 fans in the Elmen Center.
Augustana has now won its last three Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference games and improves to 12-4 overall and 6-3 in the NSIC. The Warriors are now 12-5 this season and 5-5 in the NSIC.
The Vikings were leading 55-43 with 7:22 to go in the game, but the Warriors leading scorer and Women's Basketball Coaches Association player of the month, Ana Wurtz put in back to back 3-pointers to bring the game to within 6 points but Amy Puthoff, Augustana's leading scorer this season, countered with a 3-point play of her own to stop a final Warriors run.
Both teams had similar shooting nights with Augustana edging the Warriors by one field goal.
Augustana shot 23 of 53 from the field, while Winona State was 22 of 51, as both teams finished the night shooting 43 percent.
Augie had four players finish the night in double figures scoring, as Kristi Board scored a career high 15 points off the bench on 5 of 6 shooting and 3 of 3 from the 3-point line, while pulling down 4 rebounds.
Megan Doyle also had 15 points in the game while recording 4 rebounds and 2 steals and Whitney Hofer followed with 13 points.
Puthoff finished the night with 11 points and four steals and Dani Arens had a team high 8 rebounds. The Vikings recorded a season low 8 turnovers in the game, while the bench put in 19 points.
The first half of play was a game of scoring runs and the Vikings found themselves down 8-0 in the first 5 minutes of the game after missing their first 6 shots, but got on track to tie the game up at 14 with 11:58 to go in the half.
Over the next four minutes the Vikings found themselves in another scoring drought as the Warriors went on a 12- 2 run to put the game at 16-24 at the 7:41 mark.
But again Augie responded with a 16-4 run to close out the half, to put the score in favor of the Vikings at 32-28.
Augie carried the momentum into the second half and outscored the Warriors 39 to 29.
The Vikings will be on the road next Friday to take on NSIC opponent Southwest Minnesota State at 6 p.m. in Marshall, Minn.
