SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – It's the final regular season home game and final road game of the year for the Augustana men's basketball team. The Vikings host Southwest Minnesota State on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, Augustana makes the short trek to Sioux Falls for a 3:30 p.m. contest against the Cougars.
 
Thursday's game is the Be Bold, Wear Gold contest as fans are encouraged to wear Gold in support of Augiethon and its efforts to raise money for Sanford Children's Hospital
 
Complete action can be followed at GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app. The app can be downloaded in the app store or Google Play. For the best seats, head to GoAugie.com/Tickets to purchase tickets inside the Sanford Pentagon.
 
About the Mustangs
With two games left in the season, Southwest Minnesota State can go anywhere from the No. 2 seed in the south with a bye, to the No. 6 seed and having to travel for the first round as it is 11-9 in the NSIC and 15-10 overall. The Mustangs have split their last two weekends and are coming off a 72-68 overtime loss to Winona State most recently. Prior to that, SMSU stopped Upper Iowa, 69-60.
 
Dunwa Omot leads the Mustangs with 16.3 points per game while Jake Phipps is second in scoring at 13.2 points and first in rebounds with 7.0 per outing. Phipps is an efficient 56.5 percent shooter, a mark that ranks third in the NSIC.
 
About the Cougars
Sioux Falls has lost three of four games with the lone victory being a 67-62 win over Winona State last Friday. The following night, the Cougars lost to Upper Iowa, 95-90. Previously, Sioux Falls dropped a two-point contest to Concordia-St. Paul and a 73-42 setback to Minnesota State.
 
USF has just one player in double figures with a second just below the double-digit cutoff. Jack Thompson was in double figures for most of the season but was held scoreless in the contest with Minnesota State, dropping his average to 9.4 points per outing. Thompson is the team's leading rebounder with 5.1 per game and is the top shooter from the charity stripe at 87.5 percent.
 
About the Vikings
Augustana has put itself into a position it wants to be in at the end of a season, playing meaningful games. Holding a 10-10 NSIC record (14-12 overall), Augustana can finish as high as second and get a bye into the quarterfinals of the NSIC Tournament. The ability to finish that high is coming on the heels of a weekend sweep where the Vikings topped Concordia-St. Paul, 86-59, and Minnesota State, 87-59. The Vikings swept the season series with the Mavericks and hold that tiebreaker.
 
Isaac Fink has jumped into the Vikings' lead in scoring with an average of 13.4 points per outing while also leading the way in rebounds at 7.7 per game. With another strong weekend controlling the ball, Jadan Graves moved into the top-25 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.79 assists per turnover. For the year, he has dished 106 assists to lead Augustana.
 
One Last Thing
They (whoever they are) say that you want to be playing your best basketball at the end of the season. It appears the Vikings are doing just that. Since Jan. 27, the Vikings are 5-1 while averaging 84.2 points per game. Defensively, AU holds its opponents to 67.5 points per outing in that same span. For the first 20 games of the season. Augustana averaged 69.7 points per game and held a -1.3 scoring margin. Augustana's field-goal percentage has also skyrocketed from 42.3 percent to 50 percent from the field.