After finishing up with the UW-Superior-Northwestern game, I hurried over to Augsburg's Si Melby Hall to catch the opening night of MIAC action and the Gustavus - Augsburg clash. I got seated and settled in at halftime with Augsburg holding a 25-23 lead.
The Auggies looked as if they might have the upper hand at home as the second half got underway. And it was junior guard Jolene Blood who was doing much of the damage for Augsburg as she scored inside at the 19:50 mark and then connected with one of her patented rainbow "3's" at the 17:26 mark; this one from the left wing that upped the Auggie advantage to 30-25. But the Gusties countered behind senior forward Abby Rothenbuehler and surprising freshman post Karina Schroeder and senior Kelsey Florian as they helped Gustavus close to within 31-30 by the 16:02 mark. Then it was Rothenbuehler that brought the Gusties even at 33-all by the 15:17 mark with her score inside and then it was junior reserve Britta Rinke who gave the Gusties the lead for good at 35-33 with her jumper at the 14:49 mark. Gustavus upped that lead to 38-33 by the 13:45 mark when Rothenbuehler connected with a "3" from the left top and then went on a 7-2 run over the next two minutes that really was the difference-maker in this contest. Though the Auggies would briefly make a surge that would close the gap to a scant four points by the midway point of the second half, the Gusties had effectively shut down Auggie senior Brittany Zins in the second half and forced Augsburg to flail away from behind the arc. It was a "pick your poison" type of proposition but it seemed to work out okay for the Gusties on this night anyway as they had built up a 17 point cushion at 57-40 by the 6:09 mark when Florian connected on a short jumper. Blood did her best to give the Auggies some life in the waning moments with two of her cloud-scraping three-point shots but the Gusties would prevail in this one by a final count of 63-52 giving new Gustavus Head Coach Laurie Kelly her first MIAC win and making recent Gustie greats Bri Radtke, Colleen Ruane, Molly Geske, and Liz Shay very happy as they were all in attendance on this night.
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