MOORHEAD, MInn. – Senior standout Jordan Spencer scored 25 points to cross 1,500 points for his career and true freshman Matt Cartwright added a career-high 23, as the Augustana men used a pair of first half runs to open an early lead that they would never relinquish in a 95-85 win over MSU Moorhead on Friday night.
 
The win boosts Augustana to 11-6 on the season overall and to 6-5 in the Northern Sun, while the Dragons fall to 4-13 overall and to 2-9 in conference play.
 
Augustana scored first and opened up a 14-4 lead just over five minutes into the game, with four different Vikings getting in on the scoring, and then tacked on six more, all part of a 17-2 run that gave the Vikings a 20-4 lead on a Steven Schaefer 3-pointer with 13 minutes, 10 seconds left in the opening half.
 
Up 23-6 with 12 minutes left in the half, the Dragons fired back with a 12-2 run to cut the lead to 25-18, drawing a timeout from the Augustana bench with 9:34 remaining in the first half.
 
Schaefer scored the first five points in a 10-0 barrage out of the timeout to push the lead back to 17 points at 35-17 at the seven minute mark, a lead that would reach 18 points with under a minute left in the half, but the Dragons scored the final five points of the half to cut the Vikings lead to 51-38 at halftime.
 
The Dragons trimmed the lead to as few as 11 points four times in the second half before eventually getting it down to nine, but that came with under a minute to play, and only lasted seven seconds before the Vikings got it back to double figures, which sealed the win.
 
Adding to the big nights from Spencer and Cartwright, Schaefer scored 17 points in the win, with Marcus Asmus pitching in with 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
 
Tanner Kretchman led the way for the Dragons with a game-high 25 points, with both Travaun Coad and Addison Park adding 13, Johnny Beeninga and Jake Johnson 12 and Briton Bussman 10 points in the loss.  
 
Winners of two straight, the Vikings look to make it three in-a-row on Saturday, when they take on the No. 9 ranked Northern State Wolves in Aberdeen, South Dakota at 6 p.m.
 
NOTES: Friday's game marked the 2,184th game in program history … Augustana leads the all-time series with MSU Moorhead, 14-10, and evens the all-time series in Moorhead, Minnesota, 5-5 … Augustana scored at least 50 points in a half for the sixth time this season, the second time in the first half (51 points vs. U-Mary on Dec. 9) … the Vikings led at some point in all 17 games this season … Augustana improves to 10-2 this season when leading at the half … Spencer scored at least 20 points in a game for the fifth time this season, and for the 16th time in his career … Cartwright scored at least 20 points in a game for the second time this season