SIOUX FALLS, S.D. The Augustana men's basketball team makes its official home debut Thursday night hosting Buena Vista inside the Elmen Center. The two-game homestand continues Monday against Nebraska Christian College at 7:30 p.m. Fans can support Feeding South Dakota by bringing two items to any of the games over the next week in the Elmen Center and receive admission at the discounted rate of $5 per ticket.
 
The Games
Augustana, who has never lost a home opener under head coach Tom Billeter, looks to rebound after a 1-1 record at the East/West Challenge. Overall, Augie is 3-1 on the young season. Buena Vista enters with a potentially unblemished record while Nebraska Christian is 4-2 on the year.
 
The Beavers
Buena Vista is 4-0 on the year and plays Crown College Wednesday night at home. This last weekend, Buena Vista claimed a pair of victories in the A-R-C/SLIAC Challenge, topping Westminster 87-54 and Fontbonne 103-68. Timothy Jeffries is the leading scorer at 22 points per game while four Beavers tally double-digit averages.
 
The Beavers shoot at a 46.8 percent clip and make 35 percent of their shots from deep. Outside of the conference challenge, Buena Vista also owns wins over Gustavus and Bethany Lutheran.
 
Series Record – Tied, 5-5
The series is tied 5-5 but the Vikings have won four of the last five meetings. The lone loss in that stretch came in the last contest, Nov. 17, 2007, when the Beavers snuck out of the Elmen Center with a 72-71 win. Prior to that, the last meeting was in 1993. The last four meetings have come in Sioux Falls.
 
The Sentinels
Nebraska Christian enters the week 4-2 overall but has three contests prior to playing the Vikings. The Sentinels are at Central Christian College of the Bible, Missouri Western and Concordia (Neb.) prior to facing the Vikings. Through six games, Drue Aguilera leads the team with 17.8 points per game but is closely trailed by Uzi Felix at 17.5 points per game. Jordan Makanjuola is tops on the team with seven rebounds per outing.
 
Monday's contest is the first meeting between the Vikings and Nebraska Christian College.
 
The Vikings
Augustana is looking to rebound from its first setback of the season last Saturday to South Dakota Mines as part of the East/West Challenge. Augustana topped host Black Hills State on a game-winning basket by Matt Cartwright on Friday night.
 
Cartwright, a junior, is off to a hot start in 2019-20, averaging 23.5 points per game and sinking 52.5 percent of his field-goal attempts. He is perfect from the charity stripe at 17-of-17. Michael Schaefer, a sophomore, ranks second on the team with 11 points per contest while junior Tyler Riemersma averages 10 points and a team-best 9.8 rebounds per game.
 
Augustana owns a +6.3 rebound margin and averages 38 rebounds per game. The rebounding margin is fifth in the NSIC.
 
One Last Thing
If they are free, why not make them? Augustana ranks seventh in the nation making 84.6 percent of its free-throw attempts. The high percentage is not a new revelation for the Vikings as they ranked 10^th in the nation last year at 79.2 percent.