SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- The Augustana Viking women's basketball team closed out the regular season with a 95-83 win over the Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs on Saturday afternoon at the Elmen Center. The Vikings now move to 21-10 (13-9 NSIC) and the Mustangs go to 12-15 (9-13 NSIC).

NSIC Postseason
The Viking women, who will take on Northern State, will tip-off at 5:30 p.m. The game is part of men's/women's doubleheader, and tickets will go on sale on Sunday (Feb. 24) at 10 a.m. on GoAugie.com/Tickets.

If either program advances out of the first round, all remaining games will be played at the Sanford Pentagon. For more information on the 2019 NSIC/Sanford Health basketball tournament, please visit here.

The Vikings led by as many as seven in the first quarter before SMSU mounted a run to only trail by one, 28-27 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Augustana jumped out to a six-point lead 38-32 after a Vishe' Rabb three-pointer. After that, both the Vikings and Mustangs would trade baskets back and forth in a tightly contested quarter.

Izzy Van Veldhuizen closed out the first half with an old fashioned three-point play to give Augustana the 50-43 lead. The lead changed eight different times over the course of the first half.

The Vikings started the second half strong with back-to-back buckets from Lynsey Prosser and Abby Hora to bring the lead to its largest of the night at 12, 55-43. SMSU would answer back with a mini 5-0 run of their own to bring the lead back down to six with seven minutes to play in the third quarter.

Augustana would also answer back with a 8-3 run to end the quarter giving them a 73-66 lead going into the final period of play.

SMSU wasn't letting Augustana blow the game open but at the same time couldn't cut the deficit to anything closer to seven points throughout the final quarter of play.

A Mustangs layup by Abuk Akoi to bring them within six points with 3:14 to go gave SMSU all the momentum for the moment, but the Vikings defense, a Prosser layup and free throws late in the game helped Augustana end the regular season with a win in the Elmen Center.

The Vikings went 7-of-8 from the line in the final minute of the game to erase any hope of a last-minute comeback for SMSU.

Augustana had five people score in double figure with Prosser leading the way with 26 points on 8-of-20 shooting from the field and 4-of-8 from deep. She also went 6-of-6 from the charity stripe including a clutch pair with under a minute left to go.

Hora had 17 points and four assists, Rabb had 11 points and Hana Metoxen and Danni Honner finished with 10 points a-piece to round out the double-digit scoring for Augustana. 

The Vikings shot 45.8 percent from the field and 40.7 percent from deep. The biggest stat of the night was shooting 90 percent (18-20) from the free throw line. Augustana also scored 30 points off turnovers compared to the Mustangs 11.