SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Augustana women'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 7:30 p.m. while Saturday's game in Aberdeen is slated for 6 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
UMary is 10-6 overall and 6-2 in NSIC. They come off a statement road weekend when they defeated Minnesota Duluth and Concordia-St. Paul. They've won five in a row, but are 3-3 at home on the season The Marauders were selected to finish third in the NSIC Preseason Poll.

Lexie Schneider leads the NSIC with 20.6 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. She is also second in the conference with a 54.1 field goal percentage, and leads the team with 38 assists.  Mariah McKeever is scoring 12.4 points per game is 52.5 percent from downtown. 
 

ABOUT THE WOLVES
Northern State has opened the season 10-4 overall and 6-2 in the NSIC. They went 1-1 on the road lat weekend, falling to Minnesota State and defeating Winona State. The Wolves have lost two of their last three NSIC games, and were selected to finish 10th in the NSIC Preseason Poll. 

NSU is led by Madelyn Bragg, whose 19.4 points per game, 7.2 rebounds per game, and 27 blocks are all team-bests, and she leads the NSIC with a 58.2 shooting percentage. Rianna Fillipi is the Swiss army knife of the Wolves, ranking second on the team with 11.9 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, and leads the conference with 65 total assists. Guard Jordyn Hilgemann made her first two appearances of the season last weekend and tallied a pair of assists.
 

LAST TIME OUT
Jennifer Aadland and Michaela Jewett each totaled 16 points while Aby Phipps had her first career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds to defeat Minnesota Crookston 67-46 on Saturday afternoon inside the Elmen Center. CJ Adamson dished a career-best five assists in the contest, and the Vikings limited the Golden Eagles to 25.4 percent shooting from the field. 
 

NSIC LEADERS
In 11 NSIC conference games, Michaela Jewett and Lauren Sees have played at an extremely high level. Jewett is averaging 15.9 points per game, seventh in the conference, while Sees slots in at 11th scoring 14.6 points per game. Jennifer Aadland has grabbed 7.6 rebounds per game, sixth, and Jewett is seventh with 7.3 rpg. Sees has also scored efficiently, ranking fifth with a .464 field goal percentage. Jewett leads the NSIC with a .377 3-point field goal percentage, 23 made threes and 2.6 threes per game.
 

FUTURE VIKINGS
Augustana head coach Jillian Flores Bennett has added three future Vikings as part of the 2024 signing class. On National Signing Day, Olivia Kesti of Blaine, Minn., and Avery Yosten of Norfolk, Neb., signed their National Letter of Intent. On Tuesday, the class added Isabella Sanneh of Woodbury, Minn.

BRILLIANCE BEYOND THE ARC
The Vikings have made at least one three pointer in every single game since the 1999-2000 season, totaling 725 consecutive games with a make. In the same time frame, Augustana has made at least 10 three pointers in 176 games, including twice this season.

GOING WITH THE FLO
First-year head coach, Jillian Flores Bennett, earned her first victory in the Elmen Center on Nov. 21 in a 73-56 win over Sioux Falls. Coach Flo is 21-17 as a head coach at a four-year institution after spending 2021-22 with Our Lady of the Lake, where she went 20-11. She spent last season with Iowa Western, where she accumulated a 26-5 record and region championship appearance. 

SEES THE MOMENT
Entering her fifth season, Lauren Sees looks to make her mark. The fifth year guard from Avon, S.D., is second on the team with 14.2 points per game and leads the team with 32 total assists. After reaching the 1,000 career point milestone in the middle of last season, Sees has continued to climb up the Augustana rankings. She has now scored 1,453 points in her career, good for 12th in program history, and is 36 points away from cracking the top ten.  

JEWETT'S JUMP
After seeing a jump in her role as a sophomore last season, Michaela Jewett has cemented herself as one of the NSIC's best. She leads the team with 16.4 points per game and 34 made three pointers. She also ranks second on the team with 7.4 rebounds per game. 

THE AADLAND EFFECT
Jennifer Aadland has been one of the most efficient shooters in the NSIC while causing havoc in the paint. She has shot .400 percent from the field, .333 percent from three, and .920 percent from the free throw line. She also leads the team with 7.8 rebounds per game, 1.6 blocks per game, and three double-doubles while scoring 10.5 points per game. 

SHINING STARS
Michaela Jewett and Lauren Sees were named to the NSIC Shining Five for games played Dec. 19-Jan 2. Jewett averaged 17.5 points per game in a pair of games, fourth best in the conference, and added an NSIC-best six three pointers and 9.5 rebounds per game. Her performances were highlighted by a 17 point, 13 rebound double-double against Northwestern (Iowa). Sees tied for the NSIC lead with 22.0 points per game while knocking down 12 of 27 from the field, 5 of 9 from three-point range, and 15 of 16 from the free-throw line. Against Northwest Missouri State, she scored 24 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter, on 8 of 13 shooting, 2 of 3 from deep, and 6 of 6 from the free throw line.

MONEY MICHAELA CASHES IN
Michaela Jewett earned NSIC Shining 5 honors the weekend of Dec. 2-3 after a monster weekend for the Vikings. The senior was second in the NSIC with 10.0 rebounds per game and fourth with 22.5 points per game. She also made an NSIC-high eight three pointers, and was second with 4.0 three's per game. Her weekend opened with a 20 point, 12 rebound double-double against CSP on Saturday before adding 25 points and eight rebounds while knocking down five three pointers against No. 20 UMD on Sunday. 

CONFERENCE OUTLOOK
The Augustana women's basketball team was selected to finish sixth in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll and senior guard Lauren Sees was selected as the Vikings' Player to Watch.
 

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