Box Score
In a nerve racking overtime finish, the Augustana women's basketball team was able to outlast the Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs 67-60 Friday night in Marshall, Minn.
The Vikings now 13-4 on the season and 7-3 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, made numerous key plays down the stretch to ice the Mustangs (10-10, 2-8 NSIC) and earn a season sweep over SMSU.
In Augustana's fourth straight NSIC victory, Whitney Hofer started the overtime period with an old-fashioned 3-point play, which was followed by a Dani Arens jumper to put the Vikings out in front 57-52 to set the tone at 44 second in.
Augie kept things rolling in the extra session scoring 15 points, while holding the Mavericks scoreless in the final 1:23.
The Vikings were led by Amy Puthoff who had a game-high 24 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. Megan Doyle finished a solid night with 14 points and a career-high 9 rebounds and 7 assists.
Hofer finished the night with 11 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and a season-high 4 blocks.
Augie shot 31 percent on the night as a team on 22 of 71 shooting, while holding SMSU to an even 31 percent on 20 of 64 shooting. Both teams also had 21 turnovers in the game.
In the first half, the Vikings started down a quick 7 points in the first 2:30 of the game but Augie fought back to gain the lead at 12-11 at the 13:26 mark.
The Vikings gained their biggest lead of the half at 18-12 with 12:12 remaining, but after that, the Vikings found themselves in a dogfight for the remainder of the game.
The Mavericks gained the lead back at 21-20, but 7 seconds later Augie was leading again and held on to go into halftime with a 29-27 advantage.
In a poor shooting first half for both sides, only 4 Augie players recorded points in the first half as Puthoff scored nearly half of the Vikings points with 14, while not one player from SMSU scored more than 5 points.
An Augie milestone was reached early in the second half as Puthoff connected on a 3-pointer at the 19:18 mark of the second. With the basket, she passed Jenn Ibis for 16th on the Augustana all-time scoring list at 1,207 points. She finished the night nine points behind Laur Hensley who sits at 1,225 in her career.
The highlight was soon forgotten, as Augie could not seem to shake the Mavericks.
Augie got up by as many as 7 points, but MSU fired back to earn their first lead 16 after their previous lead with 9:13 to play.
Augie regained the lead and did not give it up the rest of they game as both teams battled back and forth through 3 ties in the final nine minutes of play.
Megan Wittkop scored a team-high 12 points for the Mustangs in a losing effort.
Augustana will return to action tomorrow night to take on the No. 3 Minnesota State Mavericks (17-0, 10-0 NSIC) at 6 p.m. in Mankato, Minn.
