SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Augustana men's basketball team returns to South Division action riding a six-game winning streak and will be back on the road against Concordia-St. Paul and Winona State. Tip-off against the Golden Bears is set for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday before a 3 p.m., matchup on Saturday against the Warriors. 
 
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 Golden Bears
Concordia-St. Paul was selected to finish fourth overall in the NSIC Preseason Poll. The Golden Bears have started 15-7 overall and 10-6 in the NSIC after home wins against Minot State and UMary. CSP has won seven of their last eight games. Ben Kopetzki has powered the offense, scoring 21.9 points per game. Owen Carlson has started just seven of his 20 games played, scoring 13.5 points per game while knocking down an 45 of 98 from deep. 

About the Warriors
Winona State was selected to finish ninth in the NSIC Preseason Poll. The Warriors are 8-13 on the season and 7-9 in the NSIC and have won three games in a row. Tyler Mason is scoring 13.5 points per game and has knocked down 48 3-pointers. Ryan Heise had added 13.3 points per game on 54.4 percent shooting from the field and  Gavyn Hurley is scoring 12.9 points per game on 53.2 percent shooting while grabbing a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game.

Last Time Out
 The Augustana basketball team used a big second half to knock off Minnesota Duluth, 96-84, on Saturday night in the Elmen Center. 

Trailing by four at the half, the Vikings outscored the Bulldogs 59-43 in the final 20 minutes to secure their sixth straight victory. AU shot 62.5 percent (30 of 48) from the field and 12 of 19 from deep while holding the Bulldogs to 47.7 percent (31 of 65) from the field and 9 of 15 from 3-point range.

Tanner Te Slaa tied a season-high with 22 points while knocking down all five 3-pointers he attempted. Tameron Ferguson added 20 points and six rebounds and Caden Hinker went for 19 points, four assists and three rebounds. Sam Rensch scored 13 points and Brady Helgren tallied 11 points and a team-high five rebounds.

About the Vikings
Augustana is 14-7 overall and 12-4 in the NSIC while riding a six-game winning streak. They did that after playing a tough non-conference slate, with two of their three losses coming by four points or less. 

Tameron Ferguson has been one of the best players in the country in his sophomore season, leading the team with 20.9 points and 6.3 assists per game while shooting 54.5 percent from the field and 36.6 percent from deep. He has tallied at least 20 points in 14 of his last 17 games, including a 28-point performance against Sioux Falls on Dec. 6. 

Ferguson is the first Viking to record multiple point-assist double doubles since Jordan Spencer in 2017-18 and is the only player in the country averaging at least 20 points and six assists per game. He is fourth in the country with a 3.24 assist/turnover ratio and is the engine for an offense that turns the ball over just 9.3 times a game, the fewest total in the country.

After missing all of last season, Caden Hinker has been a dominant force in his return. The redshirt junior has recorded six double-doubles while leading the team with 6.8 rebounds per game, including 5.9 defensive rebounds per game. He's second on the team with 15.4 points per game and scored a career-high 26 points against Winona State on Nov. 18 while grabbing a career-high 12 rebounds against Northwest Missouri State on Nov. 15.

Senior Sam Rensch is third on the team with 13.4 points per game. He is second on the team with 2.3 assists per game and has grabbed 3.7 rebounds per contest. He has recorded a steal in 18 of 21 games and scored a season-high 24 points against Sioux Falls in 46 minutes on Dec. 6. He is tied for the team with 1.6 steals per game.

After being inserted into the starting lineup on Jan. 9, Brady Helgren took full advantage of his opportunity. The junior scored a career-high 21 points on 8 of 11 shooting against Jamestown on Jan. 9 and followed that on Jan. 10, reseting his career-high with 22 points on 10 of 14 shooting while tying a career-high with nine rebounds. He averaged 16.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in his first four starts while shooting 69.2 percent from the field and added an 11 point, five rebound performance while taking just four shots against Minnesota Duluth on Saturday.

Bennett Fried had one of the best games of his young career on Dec. 11, tying a career high with 20 points and 12 rebounds while shooting 9 of 13 from the field against St. Cloud State. He has scored in double figures eight times, including all four times he has taken at least nine shots from the field. He's fifth on the team with 8.2 points per game while grabbing 3.7 rebounds per game and shooting 62.6 percent from the field.

Tanner Te Slaa is fourth on the team in scoring, averaging 9.7 points per game while adding 3.8 rebounds per game. The 2024-25 All-NSIC Second Team honoree has knocked down at least two 3-pointers in 10 games this season with the Vikings holding a 9-1 record in those seven games. The Vikings are also 7-2 when Te Slaa scores in double figures. 

Series History
The Vikings are 32-7 all-time against Concordia-St. Paul and have won eight of the last 10 meetings. AU is 12-6 on the road in the series. Earlier this season, Tameron Ferguson had 22 points and Tanner Te Slaa had a 15 point, 10 rebound double double to push the Vikings to a wire-to-wire victory.   

Augustana and WSU will meet for the 43nd time with the series deadlocked at 21-21. The Vikings are 6-11 in Winona all-time and snapped a six-game losing streak in December when Caden Hinker scored 26 points and grabbed 11 boards while Tameron Ferguson tallied 16 points and 11 assists in an 84-68 home win.