KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Augustana men's basketball team fell 75-46 Saturday night to Washburn to wrap up the Central Region Challenge in Kansas City, Missouri. The Vikings fall to 1-1 on the season while Washburn improves to 1-1.
Augustana jumped out to a 9-4 lead, much from the hands of
Brady Helgren with six points. After three more points from Helgren, AU led 12-7 with 14:50 to go in the opening half. On the next Viking possession,
Bennett Otto was sent to the free throw line where he went 1-of-2 to make it a 13-7 Augustana advantage.
The Vikings then saw the Ichabods go on a 12-0 run as the basket proved to be not kind for the next 9:38 of game clock. By the time
Jadan Graves sank a 3-point basket with 4:52 remaining in the opening half, Washburn had captured the lead.
However, the scoring woes for Augustana were not gone as Washburn ended the first half on a 27-6 run to enter halftime leading 34-19.
The Vikings did improve its shooting performance in the second half to 39.1 percent but the hole was too deep as Washburn shot 48.3 percent from the field for the game in the 75-46 final score.
Helgren was the lone Viking in double figures with 12 points while he also led the way with seven rebounds.
Augustana is in Sioux Falls for the East/West Challenge hosted by the Sanford Pentagon. Both contests in the challenge are slated for 11 a.m. with Friday's game against South Dakota Mines and Saturday's game against Black Hills State. With the challenge not being hosted by Augustana, it is not part of the season ticket package for Augustana basketball. Tickets can be purchased on Ticketmaster.com, at the Sanford Pentagon Box Office or by phone at 605-312-7917.
--GoAugie.com--
