ST. PAUL, Minn. – Down 49-35 with 12 minutes, 22 minutes left on Friday at Concordia-St. Paul, the Augustana men's basketball team outscored the Golden Bears 40-14 down the stretch, highlighted by an 18-0 run, to secure a 75-56 win at the Gangelhoff Center.
 
The Vikings 12th straight win over the Golden Bears boosts their record to 6-2 overall and evens their record in Northern Sun play to 1-1, while the Golden Bears fall to 1-6 overall and to 0-1 in conference play.
 
Concordia-St. Paul dictated a slow pace of play early, and used that to take a 14-8 lead in the first 10 minutes, only to see the Vikings fire back with a 10-2 run to take an 18-16 lead with a tick under seven minutes to play in the first half.
 
That lead didn't last, as the hosts fired back with an 8-0 spurt later in the half to go up 29-24 before taking a 31-25 lead into halftime, thanks largely to 13 points off of 11 Vikings turnovers.
 
Four straight points out of the break from Adam Dykman cut the lead to 31-29, but the Golden Bears answered with a 14-2 run to give them their largest lead of the game at 45-31 with 14:07 remaining.
 
Still down 14 with 12:22 left, the Vikings used a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 49-44 exactly four minutes later, and then erupted for an 18-0 run to take a 65-53 lead with 2:43 left, as the Vikings outscored the Golden Bears 28-4 over the last 6:14 and 50-25 in the second half.
 
Matt Cartwright poured in a game- and career-high 22 points on 8 of 9 shooting, including a 6 of 7 effort from 3-point range. Both Steven Schaefer and Dykman added 15 points with Dykman adding a game-high 8 rebounds. Jordan Spencer pitched in with nine points and a game-high eight assists.
 
The Vikings look to complete the weekend sweep on Saturday, when they travel to Mankato, Minnesota, to take on the Mavericks at 6 p.m.
 
NOTES: Augustana leads the all-time series with Concordia-St. Paul, 19-5, with an 8-4 advantage in St. Paul … the Vikings scored a season-low 25 first half points ... Augie won for the first time this season after trailing at halftime … the Vikings committed just four turnovers in the second half … Augustana scored at least 50 points in a half for the second time this season (62 in the second half vs. Doane) … Cartwright joins Spencer, Dykman, Marcus Asmus, Steven Schaefer and John Warren as the only players on the team to score at least 20 points in a game this season … Cartwright's previous career-high of 12 points came against Doane on Nov. 22