SIOUX FALLS – A cold start in Friday's Northern Sun contest with Minnesota State only served to briefly slow down the red-hot Augustana women's basketball team, as the No. 12 ranked Vikings outscored the visiting Mavericks 24-8 in the third quarter to secure a 79-60 win and keep the historic start intact.
 
Augustana extends its best start in program history to 13-0 overall and to 9-0 in NSIC play, while the Mavericks fall to 4-10 overall and to 2-6 in conference play.
 
The Vikings struck first, scoring the first four points of the game, but both team struggled from the floor in the first quarter, the Vikings going 5 for 17, and the Mavericks going 5 for 18. Two of Augustana's makes came from deep though, which gave Augie a 14-13 lead after one quarter.
 
The Mavericks found their shot first, and used it to open up a five point lead early in the second quarter at 26-21. The Vikings scored the next six to take a 27-26 lead, only to see Minnesota State answer with a 6-0 run of its own to open up a 32-27 lead with 3:20 left in the first half.
 
Augustana snapped the run with four straight points, and then tied the game on a long buzzer-beating 3-poitner by Abby Hora that tied the game at 34-all at halftime.
 
Presley O'Farrell scored the first points of the second half to break the tie, but the Vikings didn't fully take control until later in the third quarter, when a 9-0 Vikings run gave them their largest lead of the game at 50-40, which drew a timeout from the Minnesota State bench with 3:39 left in the third quarter.
 
A Paige Peterson steal and Hora layup out of the timeout pushed the run to 11-0, a run that would reach 15-0, which resulted in a 56-40 Vikings lead with under two minutes to play in the third stanza.
 
The lead hit 18 points at 60-42 before a pair of Mavericks 3-pointers got it down to 12 points early in the fourth quarter, but the Vikings quickly pushed the lead back to 18 and eventually to a high of 22 down the stretch.
 
Hora scored a game- and career-high 18 points, one of five Vikings in double figures, as O'Farrell finished with 17, while Logan O'Farrell, Naomi Rust and Hana Metoxen all added 11 points, which marks a new career-high for Metoxen as well.
 
Both Taylor Klug and Claire Ziegler scored 12 points to lead the Mavericks, with Monica Muth adding 11 points in the loss.
 
The Vikings look to make it 14 straight on Saturday, when they host Concordia-St. Paul at the Sioux Falls Arena at 4 p.m. Augustana won the first meeting of the season over the Golden Bears, 72-50 in St. Paul on Dec. 1.