SAINT JOSEPH, Mo. - The Augustana men's basketball team opened its 2025-26 campaign with a 69-68 loss to host Missouri Western to open the Tip-Off Classic. 

Sam Rensch and Tameron Ferguson each scored 16 points to lead the team while combining for seven assists. Bennett Fried had 11 points to go with four rebounds while Brady Helgren led the team with seven rebounds. 

The Vikings had advantages from the field (47.4%-45.3%), from deep (36.4%-21.7%) and from the free throw line (54.5%-42.9%) but committed 13 turnovers while the Griffons turned the ball over just five times. 

Fried opened the scoring with a layup before a Rensch layup and Hinker 3-pointer helped jumpstart a 7-0 run in the first 1:26 of game time. A Fried dunk stopped an MWSU mini-run and a Ferguson 3-pointer with 11:57 left in the first half made it 16-11 AU. 

The Griffons snatched their first lead of the day at 19-18, a lead quickly erased by another 3-pointer from Ferguson with 10:13 left in the half made it 21-19. 

The game saw three ties before the next MWSU lead at 27-25 but, again, an AU 3-pointer, this time by Rensch, gave the Vikings the lead right back and a Helgren jumper put them ahead by three at 30-27. 

A Markus Talley 3-pointer with 3:06 remaining gave the Vikings a five-point lead, a lead that shrunk to 37-35 into the half. 

Rensch opened the second half scoring with a layup but a 10-2 MWSU run gave them their largest lead of the game at that point, 45-41, with 16:39 to go in the game. 

A Jack Hastreiter 3-pointer, Rensch jumper and Ferguson layup put the Vikings back ahead by three but back-to-back buckets from the Griffons put them in front 49-48 with 12:21 to go. 

Talley hit another 3-pointer to reclaim the lead but an and-one from MWSU cancelled it out with 11:51 remaining. The game saw just two more two-possession leads, with the latest coming at the 2:08 mark with the Griffons leading 67-63. 

Tanner Te Slaa hit his first 3-pointer of the game with 1:06 to play to cut it to a point. A pair of free throws from MWSU with eight seconds left put them ahead by three and the Vikings hit a bucket as time expired, but a toe on the line was the difference between the final score and overtime. 

The Vikings close the weekend at 4 p.m., on Saturday, taking on Northwest Missouri State in St. Joseph, Missouri.