Box Score

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Northern State University Wolves won the 30 minutes of play in the middle, but a 13-0 run to start the afternoon and a 14-4 burst to end it gave the 19th ranked Augustana Vikings all they needed to claim a 71-62 victory over NSU Sunday afternoon in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference basketball action.

The loss was the Wolves' second of the weekend, dropping them to 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the conference.  Augustana escaped to improve to 10-1 on the year and 3-1 in league games.  The Sunday afternoon game was a rescheduled affair after blizzard conditions on Saturday forced a postponement of the original start time.

NSU struggled out of the gates, going 0-for-4 from the field and committing four turnovers on their first eight possessions before junior Jenna Higgins finally put the Wolves on the board at the 15:21 mark.  From there, the Wolves slowly chipped away at the Viking lead, cutting it to two on four occasions throughout the half.

Augustana's Alex Feeney, however, drained the Vikings' sixth trey of the half just before intermission to send the teams into the break with Augustana holding a 37-32 edge.

The Wolves kept at it in the second half, matching the Vikings point for point until a pair of Mikayla Barondeau free throws gave the Wolves their first and only lead of the half with 3:56 left to play.  Those free throws came on the heels of a conventional three-point play from Barondeau that vaulted NSU from a four-point deficit to a 58-57 lead.

From there, however, the game belonged to the Vikings, who drained back-to-back three-pointers and converted on 6 of 9 attempts from the free throw line.  Augustana also forced another four NSU turnovers and held the Wolves to just one field goal and a pair of free throws in the final three and a half minutes of play.

Senior forward Jodi Reinschmidt led four NSU players in double figures with a game-high 19 points.  Junior Emily Becken added 11 points on the strength of three treys and the two free throws in the game's final minute.  Barondeau and senior center Krista Rabenberg added ten apiece.

The Vikings got 17 points from Megan Doyle and another 14 from Feeney.  The pair combined to go 5-for-11 from long range.  Molly Hays added an even dozen, while fellow starters Tessa Wilka and Kristi Board chipped in nine apiece.  Augustana's starting five accounted for all but ten of the team's 71 total points.

Despite winning the shooting percentage battle, the Wolves committed 17 turnovers, which the Vikings turned into 14 points.  In contrast, the Vikings gave up the ball just six times all game.
The Wolves return home to close out the 2010 portion of the season with a pair of home games against Bemidji State and Minnesota-Duluth next weekend.  Both NSIC contests will tip off at 6 p.m. in NSU's Wachs Arena.