SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Augustana men's basketball team takes to the road for the first time in the 2024 calendar year with a Friday night contest at UMary and a Saturday game at Northern State. Friday's game with the Marauders is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. while Saturday's game in the Hub City is slated for 4 p.m.
 
Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app, presented by The Original Pancake House. The app can be downloaded in the App Store or Google Play. 
 
About the Marauders
The University of Mary is 6-8 on the season but 1-7 within the NSIC. The Marauders held a strong nonconference record, picking up five victories over NAIA foes along with a 63-61 win over Northeastern State on the opening weekend of action. Most recently, UMary dropped a pair of games at Minnesota Duluth (82-60) and Concordia-St. Paul (84-68).
 
Gerald Gittens and Brock Heffner lead the Marauders with identical 14.6 points per game averages. Heffner holds the edge in shooting percentage at 49.4 percent from the field while Gittens scores his points from the perimeter by making 40.9 percent of his 3-point field goal attempts. Xavier Lewis is the top rebounder with 7.5 rebounds per game.
 
About the Wolves
Northern State is off to a 4-4 start in NSIC action while holding a 6-8 overall record. The Wolves started the season 0-4 then recorded a 6-4 record since Nov. 21. Last weekend, NSU split with a loss at Minnesota State (81-66) and a two-point win at Winona State (77-75) thanks to a jumper by Josh Dilling to capture the win.
 
The Wolves place two with 20-plus points scoring led by Dilling's 20.4 per outing. Jacksen Moni is at 20 points and a team-best 8.0 rebounds per game. Dilling, who shoots 57.8 percent from the field, leads NCAA Division II in 3-point field goal percentage at 54.3 percent while sinking 2.7 3-point field goals per game.
 
About the Vikings
Augustana is 8-7 in 2023-24 while holding a 3-6 mark in the NSIC after last weekend's split with MSU Moorhead and Minnesota Crookston. The Vikings had then No. 2 MSU Moorhead on the ropes but ultimately fell, 83-74, propelling the Dragons to the No. 1 ranking in NCAA Division II. The following night, Augustana bounced back with a 24-point win over Minnesota Crookston.
 
Isaac Fink continues to lead the Vikings with 18.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per outing. Jadan Graves joins Fink in double-figure scoring with 15.1 points per contest. Freshman Arhman Lewis tallies 9.0 points per game but over the last five games, all starts, the guard pours in 15.4 points per game. Prior to his starting role, Lewis scored just 5.8 points per contest.
 
Lewis' starting role has also opened up Graves to a more efficient shooting performance as the senior went from shooting 43.4 percent from the field to 59.5 percent while scoring two points more per game.
 
One Last Thing
Augustana has had one of the toughest schedules to start NSIC action in 2023-24 through eight games. The Vikings have already faced four of the top five teams and five of the top seven squads in the league. When accounting nonconference games into the slate, officially, AU has played the third toughest schedule in the NSIC per stats.ncaa.org. Augustana's opponents have played to the tune of a .610 winning percentage, which marks as the 27^th toughest schedule in NCAA Division II out of 301 teams.