Box Score
The Augustana women's basketball team routed Upper Iowa on Friday night in an impressive all-around effort by junior guard
Megan Doyle. Doyle recorded 18 points, 10 assists, seven steals, and six rebounds in the 104-49 win.
With the victory, which marks a season-high in scoring, Augie improves to 16-5 overall and 11-4 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
Upper Iowa falls to 2-21 and 0-16 in the NSIC.
Augie took control right from the beginning, outscoring the Peacocks 12-3 in the first 4:30 of the game. All five Augustana starters scored during that stretch. But Upper Iowa fought back, only allowing the Vikings to score one basket in the next 2:20 to pull to within two at 14-12 with 12:50 remaining.
The Vikings then took off, going on a 21-2 run which included nine points by Doyle. She also played strong defense in that stretch, and ended the half with six steals.
Upper Iowa's Paige Devine took control of the Peacock offense, scoring eight of the team's last 10 points of the half. Augie was able to put together a stretch of 10 unanswered points in the last few minutes of the half, which included two 3-pointers by sophomore guard
Liz Helsper and helped the Vikings to a 53-24 lead at half.
The Vikings shot 55.6 percent (20 of 36) from the field and 41.2 percent (7 of 17) from 3-point range. They also played strong defense, forcing 19 Peacock turnovers and collecting 12 steals.
Upper Iowa was 39.1 percent (9 of 23) shooting and 28.6 percent (2 of 7) from downtown.
The Vikings started the second half much like the first, outscoring the Peacocks 11-2, capped off with a 3-pointer by freshman forward
Lydia Nelson, who made her first career start in lieu of injured junior forward
Kristi Board. This gave the Vikings a 64-26 lead with 17:01 to play.
Sophomore center
Teri VerSteeg scored the next eight points for the Vikings, and a layup by Upper Iowa's Cassandra Deiters made the score 72-35 at the 12 minute mark. Augie then scored nine unanswered points to go up 81-35 at the 10 minute mark.
The Vikings emptied their bench, allowing freshman guard
Cami Koehn to contribute eight points seven rebounds in 10 minutes of play, both of which are career highs. Back-to-back threes from Helsper and Koehn followed by a layup by sophomore center Kathryn Van Duynhoven closed out the game.
The Vikings shot 52 percent (39 of 74) for the game and were 41.7 percent (15 of 36) from behind the arc. This is just one shy of Augustana's all-time record for 3-pointers in a game.
Augie also set a season-high with 29 team assists and ended the game with 16 steals and forced 26 turnovers.
Upper Iowa was just 35.2 percent (19 of 54) overall and 26.7 (4 of 15) from behing the arc.
Doyle's 18 points led all scorers, and combined with 10 assists, marks her third double-double this season. Seven steals sets a career-high.
VerSteeg's 17 points was also a career-high and Nelson added 15 points. Rounding out the double-digit scorers were Helsper and Tinklenberg, who scored 12 points each.
Augie will be back in action tomorrow night as they take on Winona State at 5 p.m. at the Elmen Center.
