SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The Augustana men's basketball team dropped its fourth straight contest, falling 72-55 to Winona State on Friday night inside the Sanford Pentagon. 

The Vikings fall to 3-5 overall and 0-2 in the NSIC while the Warriors jump to 7-1, 2-0. 

Sam Rensch led the Vikings with 12 points while grabbing four rebounds. Bennett Fried was solid in his second career start with nine points and eight rebounds, including three offensive boards. Malyk Rebetez scored nine points off the bench while making seven free throws and Tanner Te Slaa added eight points and six boards. 

The first three shots of the night found the bottom of the net to get the game going. Fried opened the scoring with a layup and Rensch followed a WSU 3-pointer with one of his own. After a two minute scoring drought, the Warriors tied it up with a layup to make it 5-5 with 16:59 left in the half. 

The Warriors scored the next four points and inched their lead to seven at 20-13 with 10:31 left in the first half. The WSU run continued from there as they scored 11 of the next 16 points to grow the lead to 31-18 with 4:57 remaining. 

A Fried layup and Rebetez free throw brought the Vikings within 10 points. After a 3-pointer from WSU, Te Slaa and Rebetez sandwiched a Warrior midrange with layups to take an 11 point deficit into the locker room. 

A one for two trip to the free throw line for the warriors opened the second half scoring and a Rensch slam brought the deficit back to 10. After another one-make trip to the line for WSU, Fried cleaned up the offensive glass with a putback and Te Slaa got to the rack for a layup to get back within 38-31 with 15:34 left in the game. 

A quick response stalled the run but layups from Rensch and Te Slaa to close in on the deficit, making it 40-35. The Warriors fired right back with an 8-0 run to go right back ahead by double digits, this time at 48-35 with 11:42 left. 

The largest lead from the Warriors came at the 2:38 mark when a 3-pointer put them ahead 66-46. The Vikings were able to inch back, closing the game with a 9-6 run to bring the game to its final score. 

The Vikings return to the Sanford Pentagon on Saturday night, hosting Minnesota State at 5:30 p.m.