Box Score
The Augustana women's basketball team used a strong second half to beat Northern State, 67-55, in the first round of the NSIC / Sanford Health Women's Basketball Tournament. The Viking victory came in part from the hot shooting of freshman forward
Lydia Nelson, who made a career-high four 3-pointers in the game.
The win advances Augie to the semi-finals of the tournament and moves their record to 23-5.
Northern State ends their season 15-13.
Northern State was hot from the start, outscoring the Vikings 9-2 in the first 2:36 of the game. Junior guard
Megan Doyle single-handedly tied the score, pouring in all of Augie's first nine points.
The Wolves surged again though, scoring nine unanswered points and making the score 18-9 with 12:01 on the clock. The Vikings were able to pull within four at the 5:33 mark, when sophomore guard
Molly Hayes made a layup off of a Doyle pass to make the score 25-21.
Augie's only 3-pointer of the half came with 3:54 on the clock from sophomore forward
Faith Tinklenberg, cutting the deficit to 29-26. The Wolves then outscored the Vikings 7-2 in the final three minutes to take a 36-28 halftime lead.
The Wolves were hot from 3-point range, shooting 66.7 percent (4 of 6) in the first half, and 42.9 percent (15 of 35) overall.
The Vikings were 34.4 percent (11 of 32) from the field, and just 20 percent (1 of 5) from behind the arc.
Augie was able to keep the game close thanks to their free throw shooting. They shot 85.7 percent (6 of 7) from the charity stripe while Northern State was shot just 40 percent (2 of 5).
Doyle contributed over half of Augie's points in the half, ending the period with 15 points. The Vikings struggled in the paint, with their four post players combining to shoot just 1 of 13.
A jumper by Doyle at 17:27 gave the Vikings their first lead of the game, and they continued to roll, outscoring the Wolves 16-4 in the first 5:35 of the second half. This made the score 45-43 in favor of the Vikings, and included three treys by Nelson.
Northern State's Emily Becken got hot from 3-point range, making three from behind the arc in the next seven minutes. But the Vikings were too much to handle, and a layup by Doyle, plus the point after for the foul made the score 60-53 with 4:52 to play.
Northern's Linnea Mueller made a bucket with 4:30 remaining, but Augie scored seven unanswered points to close out the game.
A 3-pointer by Nelson with 1:29 to play marked Augie's 257
th trey this season, breaking Augustana's record for 3-pointers in a single season. The previous record was 255, set by Augie's 2006-07 squad.
The Vikings ended the game shooting 39 percent (23 of 59) from the field and 35 percent (7 of 20) from 3-point range.
Northern State was 35.5 percent (22 of 62) shooting and 46.7 percent (7 of 15) from behind the arc.
Doyle led all scorers with 21 points. She also collected three steals and four assists.
Nelson ended the night with 17 points and five rebounds. She was 4 of 7 (57.1 percent) from downtown.
Also scoring in double-digits was sophomore forward Tinklenberg with 12 points while freshman center
Alex Feeney grabbed 11 rebounds.
The Vikings will play the winner of the Wayne State and MSU Moorhead matchup on Saturday at 2 p.m. The semi-finals and finals will take place at the school of the highest remaining seed.
