The Augustana women's basketball team began its conference season by narrowly escaping with an 81-85 overtime win against U-Mary Friday night at the Elmen Center. The Vikings led by as many as 17 points in the second half before allowing U-Mary to send the game to overtime.
The win improves the Vikings to 5-1 on the season and 1-0 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play. U-Mary falls to 1-4 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
The teams traded points for the first few minutes of the game, and two made free throws by U-Mary's Taylor Luke locked the score at 10-10 with 13:36 left to play in the half. The Vikings then scored nine unanswered points, including a 3-pointer by junior guard
Megan Doyle to go up 19-10 with just over 10 minutes left to play in the half.
Augie would not make a field goal for nearly four minutes, allowing the Marauders to cut the deficit to seven points, but freshman center
Alex Feeney drained a 3-pointer with 6:23 on the clock to end Augie's poor shooting streak. On the next possession, sophomore forward
Liz Helsper made another three to give the Vikings a 28-15 advantage with 5:41 left in the half.
The Vikings narrowly outscored the Marauders in the last 4:13 to take a 39-25 lead at half. The Vikings were 11 of 12 (91.7 percent) from the free throw line in the first half while the Marauders were 9 of 12 (75.0 percent). Augie also played strong defense in the first half, forcing 19 turnovers and recording eight steals while only committing nine turnovers of their own.
The Marauders came out on fire in the second half, outscoring Augie 10-5 in the first 4:30. A put-back by junior guard
Tessa Wilka started the Vikings on a run of their own in which they outscored U-Mary 11-4 in the next five minutes to move the score to 56-13 with 10:29 to play.
U-Mary was able to pull to within 10 at 62-52 when senior center Liz Sipma scored seven points in a row, six of which came from old-fashioned 3-point plays.
Then, with the Vikings leading 66-54, U-Mary scored 11 unanswered points to move the score to 66-65 with just 55 seconds left to play.
Doyle drove to the basket with 30 seconds on the clock and was blocked by Sipma, but got her own rebound and was fouled on the put-back. She then missed both free throws, allowing U-Mary to get the defensive rebound and score a layup to take the lead at 67-66.
Helsper then fired a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left to take the 69-67 lead before Sipma scored a layup off of a missed 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds left to tie the game at 69-69 and send it into overtime.
Sipma continued to dominate, scoring the first basket of the overtime period, but Augie answered when Feeney was fouled on a layup and made both free throws. Junior forward
Kristi Board made a layup with 3:26 left in overtime to give the Vikings the 73-71 advantage, but U-Mary's Rachel Zillmer tied the score again with a layup of her own.
The teams continued to trade baskets until Wilka buried a three from the corner with 1:27 left to take the 80-77 lead. U-Mary's Kayla Rogers was fouled while driving to the basket and made it a one-point game again after making both free throws at 1:02 to play.
A missed 3-pointer by Doyle allowed Rogers to lay in a floater and take a 81-80 advantage, but Wilka hit another 3-pointer from the corner to give the Vikings the 83-81 lead with seven seconds to play. On the next possession, U-Mary's Taylor Luke was called for a charge, giving the Vikings the ball with 4.9 seconds on the clock.
Doyle was fouled on the inbounds play and sank both free throws for the 85-81 victory.
Leading the Vikings was Doyle, who recorded a season-high 18 points and dished out six assists. Board tied a season-high with 13 points. Freshman forward
Lydia Nelson and sophomore guard
Faith Tinklenberg each added 11 points and Wilka finished with 10 points and a career-high five assists.
Sipma led the Marauders, recording a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Luke added 18 points and Zillmer contributed 14.
The Vikings will be at home again tomorrow night as they take on Northern State at 5 p.m. at the Elmen Center.
