BOX SCORE SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - No. 18 Augustana shot better than 50 percent for the second-consecutive game to roll to an 83-66 victory over Southwest Minnesota State in both squads' Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference openers Friday night in Sioux Falls.
Augustana improves to 4-1 (1-0 NSIC); SMSU drops to 1-3 (0-1 NSIC).
The Vikings finished 52.2 percent (30 of 57) from the floor and 52.9 percent (9 of 17) from behind the arc. Augustana has shot less than 45 percent just once this season.
Cameron McCaffrey, who netted a game-high 21 points, led a quartet of players in double figures.
Drae Murray (15),
Brennan Olson (12) and
Cody Schilling (11) also reached double figures.
Derrick De Zeeuw grabbed seven rebounds.
Jordan Miller's 12 points paced SMSU.
Augustana connected at a 52.9-percent clip during the first half. The hot shooting had the Vikings as large as a 12-point lead.
That advantage was also the result of a 14-1 run in the middle of the first half in which the Vikings got points from five different players to lead 31-19 seven minutes before the break.
SMSU narrowed the deficit to four points with 2:24 left in the first half, but Augustana closed on a 10-2 surge and led 45-33 at intermission.
McCaffrey netted 15 point for the Vikings in the opening 20 minutes.
Augustana's lead grew to as many as 22 points twice in the second half--spurred my more precise shooting from the Vikings.
An 11-0 explosion early in the first half and a 12-4 run with less than five minutes left silenced any chance of a Mustang comeback.
The Vikings outrebounded the Mustangs 39-28, tying their largest positive margin in the category this season. The scrappy effort paid off as Augustana scored 18 second-chance points.
The conference-opening win for Augustana was just its second such victory since the 2000-01 season and first since joining the NSIC in 2008-09.
Augustana hosts Minnesota State tomorrow in a 6:05 p.m. conference contest.
