On the eve of the big NFC Divisional Playoff between my Los Angeles Rams and the Green Bay Packers, I took a look at the slate of games on tap on this Friday evening and settled for watching the Augustana vs Concordia St Paul game taking place over at Gangelhoff Arena. The Vikings were coming into this contest with a 2-2 record while the Golden Bears were unblemished at 4-0 after two weekends of play.
The visitors from Sioux Falls definitely got the kind of start they wanted; jumping out to a 5-0 lead by the 7:13 mark thanks to a "3" by senior guard forward Hannah Mitby and a short jumper in the paint by sophomore guard Lauren Sees. The Vikings would extend that lead to 10-2 when Sees connected with a jumper in transition at the 6:56 mark and senior guard Izzy Van Veldhuizen connected with a lay-up a bit later at the 6:35 mark along with one Mitby free throw at the 6:06 mark and Concordia St Paul looked to be in a heap of trouble at this point. But the Golden Bears finally settled down and slowly but surely got their way back into this one. Lanky freshman forward Lindsey Becher's lay-up at the 5:42 mark along with a jumper in the paint by senior forward Sidney Wentland at the 5:22 mark that drew a foul with the obligatory "and one" suddenly had the Golden Bears back to within a single possession down 10-7. A jumper by junior guard Meghan DuBois with 4:54 left along with two Becher freebies a bit later helped reduce the deficit to one at 12-11 and a short jumper by senior point guard Danielle Schaub with 3:05 left kept Concordia St Paul in that one-point range down 14-13. With 1:16 left, sophomore guard Jadyn Hanson banged home a "3" from the right corner to finally get this one tied at 16 a piece and one Hanson free throw with just under a minute left in this opening period finally allowed the Golden Bears to grab their first lead of this ballgame at 17-16.
Augustana looked to regain the upper hand once the second period got underway as two scores by freshman forward Jennifer Aadland - a score in the paint at the 9:43 mark along with a lay-up in transition at the 8:58 mark - pushed the Vikings back out in front by three at 20-17. Concordia St Paul didn't waste any time getting this one deadlocked again at 20 a piece on a short jumper by junior guard/forward Sydney Schultz at the 8:32 mark along with two Schultz free throws a bit later. Back-to-back jumpers by Schaub had the Golden Bears up four at 24-20 by the 6:51 mark but right back came Augustana as they grabbed a one-point lead at 25-24 by the 5:05 mark; punctuated by a three-point bomb by Sees. Another "3"; this one by Van Veldhuizen with 4:09 left - had the Vikings up by two at 28-26 with momentum seemingly on their side. But the last three and a half minutes saw things suddenly go south for this Augustana team as the Golden Bears ripped off a key 14-0 run that changed the complexion of this one for good. Sophomore forward Sydney Zgutowicz started this key run with back-to-back scores - a "3" with 3:21 left and a lay-up in transition with 3:07 left - that gave Concordia St Paul the lead back for good at 31-28. Two free throws by senior forward Ayla Lemke a bit later along with a Lemke jumper suddenly increased the lead to seven at 35-28 with just over two minutes left. Then DuBois connected with a back-breaking "3" with 1:30 left to make it 38-28 and Schultz would cap this run with a jumper with just over a minute left to make it 40-28 by the halftime break.
Now down by double-digits, this Augustana team had to go to work in order to chip away at this deficit. It took a bit but an Aadland "3" at the 7:45 mark had the deficit down to ten points at 45-35 but the Golden Bears stepped on the gas pedal again and would have their lead built up to 14 points at 49-35 at the 6:01 mark on two lay-ups by Becher. Wentland would add a lay-up at the 5:17 mark for a 51-38 lead and a short jumper in the paint by Wentland with 4:12 left made it 53-38 and by this point things looked grim for Viking faithful. But Augustana was at least able to dig in and get a bit of hope back with a 7-0 push; capped by a Sees "3" with 2:52 left that had the Vikings back in single-digit range down 53-45. Somewhat alarmed by this development, Concordia St Paul got things going again down the stretch to take a "safer" 60-49 lead going into the fourth period.
Augustana needed to get the gap closed quickly once the fourth period got underway and a 4-0 burst in the first three minutes suggested that another comeback might be in the offing. Sophomore forward Aislinn Duffy knocked down a short jumper in the paint at the 8:51 mark and a score in the paint by Mitby at the 7:32 mark suddenly had the deficit down to a much more manageable seven points at 60-53 with a mountain of time left. The Vikings reduced the deficit to six at 61-55 when Aadland connected with a lay-up at the 6:15 mark and Concordia St Paul definitely appeared to be vulnerable at this point. But the Golden Bears had vastly different ideas; particularly slender senior guard Riley Wheatcraft as she knocked down two critical jumpers - one at the 6:03 mark and another one at the 5:19 mark - to re-energize this Concordia St Paul team. Wheatcraft would strike again with 4:17 left with a lay-up to solidify the Golden Bear cushion to ten points at 67-57 and with 2:21 left, DuBois would unleash another dagger "3" that now stretched the lead to 70-59 that, for all intents and purposes, was the ballgame. DuBois would knock down a pair of insurance free throws with 1:01 and :34 left, respectively, and Concordia St Paul stayed undefeated with a 74-60 victory.
In looking back at this game, the one thing that I really liked about this Golden Bear team is how well they move the ball in the half court and how unselfish they are as they have more than one player who can hurt you as the final box score suggests. Both DuBois and Wheatcraft tallied 13 points on this night to lead the Concordia St Paul attack and DuBois just missed out on a "double double" with 9 rebounds to boot. Becher, too, had a nice outing on this night as she finished with 10 points but what stands out to me is that the Golden Bears had only eight turnovers on this night compared to the 17 that Augustana had which was a killer for the Vikings - even though Augustana had a 43-38 edge on the rebounding front. Rebounding is great but that gets negated when you have that many turnovers. Augustana's Sees led all scorers with her 14 points on this night while Aadland finished with 13 points.
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