Box Score
The Augustana women's basketball team recorded a 96-64 non-conference win over Valley City State Wednesday night at the Elmen Center. The win comes behind career-high scoring efforts by junior
Kristi Board, junior
Tessa Wilka, sophomore
Liz Helsper, and freshman
Alex Feeney.
Augie improves to 6-1 on the win, remaining unbeaten at home. They are also 2-0 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. VCSU drops to 4-7 overall and are 0-2 in Dakota Athletic Conference play.
Feeney scored the first nine Augustana points, making a jumper, a free throw, and two 3-pointers in the first 3:05 of the game to give Augie a 9-5 lead. VCSU then outscored Augie 10-5 in the next three minutes to take the lead at 15-14.
Augustana then went on a run of their own, with back-to-back jumpers from Board that gave Augie a 23-15 lead with 9:48 on the clock.
A three-pointer by VCSU's Courtney Titus pulled them to within three at 27-24 with 7:23 to play, but Augie would not allow them to challenge for the lead again, scoring eight unanswered points to end the half up 48-31.
Augie was 18 for 37 (48.6 percent) from the field in the first half and 6 of 12 (50 percent) from behind the arc. In contrast, VCSU was 12 of 35 (34.3 percent) shooting and 1 of 7 (14.3 percent) from 3-point range.
Augustana also played strong defense, recording four blocks and five steals and forcing 11 turnovers. Augie only committed four turnovers.
Augustana started the second half by outscoring VCSU 11-4, with Board contributing seven of those points.
Augie continued to be hot from the 3-point line, making seven threes in the second half alone, keeping VCSU from making a comeback as Augie walked away with the 86-58 win.
Augustana shot 47.3 percent (35 of 74) for the game and made 13 3-pointers on 13 of 30 (43.3 percent) shooting. VCSU was only 20 of 59 (33.9 percent) from the field and 3 of 12 (25 percent) from downtown.
Augie also won the turnover battle, forcing 21 turnovers while only committing 11. They ended the game with 10 steals and eight blocks.
Four of the five Augie Vikings in double-digit points set career-highs. Feeney had a career-high 19 points on 6 of 10 (60 percent) shooting. She also made four 3-pointers and was 3 for 4 from the charity stripe.
Board poured in a career-high 16 points and was nearly perfect on the night going 6 for 6 from the field, 2 for 2 from 3-point range, and 2 of 3 from the free throw line. She also had a career-high four assists and collected seven rebounds, one block, and two steals.
Wilka added a career-high 15 points and made 7 of 8 free throw attempts. She also had two assists and two blocks.
Helsper also had a career-high 15 points, all of which were from 3-point range. Helsper was 5 of 6 (83,3 percent) from behind the arc while also tying a career-high with four assists.
Also scoring in double-digits was junior guard
Megan Doyle, who contributed 16 points, three assists, and two blocks.
The Augie Vikings will be home again this weekend as they take on conference opponent Wayne State at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
