@ Augsburg 1/31

Last night we took on the Auggies from Augsburg at Si Melby Hall. We left a little earlier than normal because of the "monstrous" storm that is currently wrecking havoc on the east coast. We only got hit a little and traffic wasn't too bad on the way to the game. The Augsburg game is always a big one for us because we know that they will be well coached and it will always be a big game. I would probably say that they are our biggest rivals as well. They are the "city" school of Minneapolis and we are the "city" school of St. Paul (whether or not our administration wants to admit it). I believe that our football programs play for "The Hammer" every year as well. Now, on to the game.

Augsburg got off to a really good start as we looked very lackadaisical. Our defensive intensity was awful and it looked very similar to our last game vs. St. John's. Certainly not the way we wanted to get things going. After we got some subs in our "second" unit got us going, especially Josh Pratt. Josh hit three 3's in a row and added a runner for 11 points in the first five minutes of his playing time for the game. We went from being down 10-3 to being up 18-17 during Josh's (and a couple of other guys) time on the floor. Nice little run there. For the rest of the half we battled back and forth and ended up taking a three point lead, 36-33, at the break.

Second half started off much like the first as Augsburg ran the same play about 40 times in a row and it never seemed like we stopped it. We went back and forth for a while and eventually the Auggies took a four point lead with about 13 minutes to play. We got right back into with a couple of layups to tie the game and about a minute later we took the lead for good on a Noah Aguirre jumper. We really started getting to the basket and getting the ball to Carl for some easy baskets as the clock rolled down. With about five minutes left Carl had a HUGE block against one of the big's dunk attempts and came down and made a turn around jumper to take the lead to five and deflated their sails quite a bit. We made a bunch of free throws down the stretch to grab another MIAC win, 74-66.

Mike led us with 20 on 10-14 shooting from the line. He also had 9 boards, which I believe is a season high. Carl had 18 on 5-13 shooting from the field, and 8-9 from the line. He also had 11 boards and 5 blocks. Not exactly his best game in my opinion but he came up big when we needed. Josh finished with 11, all the first half. Brandon Rieg gave us a huge spark defensively and did a good job of attacking the basket on offense. He finished with 9 points.

We now stand at 10-8 overall and 8-5 in the conference. We have a huge game tomorrow night at Hutton Arena against 3rd place Gustavus. If we win, we will take 3rd place in the conference.

On a side note, Carl just passed former Hamline great Vern Mikkelsen to move into 6th place all time in scoring in Piper history. A big congrats to Carl. He was also named MIAC Player of the Week last week for the second consecutive week.

Also, Mary Wilkowski of the women's team broke the school record for scoring last night against Augsburg. Big congrats to her on the major accomplishment.