SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Augustana men's basketball team takes its season-best three-game winning streak into Northern Minnesota Friday for a 7:30 p.m. contest at Bemidji State. The following evening, AU is at St. Cloud State for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff.
 
As with the NSIC schedule the past few years, the men's and women's teams flip who plays first and second halfway through the season. That timing comes this weekend with the men set to play the second contest of the doubleheader.
 
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 Beavers
Bemidji State holds a 10-6 record while sitting at 6-4 in the NSIC. The Beavers are coming off a split weekend that included taking No. 2 Minnesota State into overtime before falling 94-92. The following night, BSU bounced back for a 93-58 win over Winona State.
 
John Sutherland, a first team All-NSIC performer a year ago, averages 20.3 points per game and ranks second on the team with 8.3 rebounds per outing. Sutherland leads the nation with 139 made field goals in 2023-24. Dalton Albrecht ranks second in scoring at 16.1 points while averaging a double-double with 10.7 rebounds per contest. Albrecht leads the NSIC in rebounds while ranking fourth nationally.
 
About the Huskies
St. Cloud State has a misleading 7-9 record and a 3-7 NSIC mark. The misleading part is of those nine losses, five have been by an average of 5.4 points. That includes a one point loss to MSU Moorhead. This past weekend, the Huskies toppled Concordia-St. Paul, 86-56 and fell to Minnesota Duluth, 75-66.
 
Luke Taylor, having played in 14 of the 16 games, leads the team with 10.6 points per outing as four total Huskies average double figures all in the 10-point range. Anish Ramlall (10.2), Lucas Morgan (10.1) and Jamiir Allen (10.1) are the others in double-digits. Morgan is the team leader in rebounds at 5.9 per outing.
 
About the Vikings
Augustana is 10-7 on the season with a 5-6 record in the NSIC after winning three-straight games by an average of 28.6 points per game. After toppling Minnesota Crookston two weeks ago, the Vikings followed up with a 33-point win at UMary and a 29-point victory over Northern State last weekend. Vikings' graduate student Isaac Fink earned the NSIC Player of the Week honor after averaging 15.5 points and 10.5 rebounds last week.
 
Fink leads AU in both major categories at 17.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. He is joined in double-digit scoring by Jadan Graves with 15 points per outing while dishing a team-best 3.8 assists per outing. A strong weekend with an 11-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio boosted Graves to the NSIC's best in the category with 2.32 assists per turnover. He also leads the league and ranks 20^th nationally with 45-made 3-point field goals.
 
One Last Thing
Augustana and Bemidji State have battled in thrillers the past four meetings with three-straight games of four-point separations and a fourth that was just a two-point separation. The Beavers narrowly escaped in the NSIC Tournament last year with a 92-88 score while the previous meeting in 2022-23 played to an 89-85 score. On Jan. 28, 2022, Adam Dykman went off for 24 points while Tyler Riemersma had 15 points and 10 rebounds in a 73-69 AU victory. The two-point game went the way of BSU, 75-73, on Dec. 14, 2019, thanks to a game-winning shot with 1.9 seconds remaining.