Bad things must come in twos as the Vikings led the North Central Cardinals 33-2, 15 minutes into the first half of the game on Wednesday. The Vikings ultimately won the game 76-49.
Senior Hunter Hill attributed the first half lead to their defense.
“I think lately we have been trying to think and overthink on defense and today we got back to our basics,” Hill said. “That’s just playing hard and flying around, so I think we did a good job of that tonight.
Whereas it took the Vikings only six minutes and 22 seconds to score 14 points, it took North Central almost 15 minutes to score the same amount in the first half.
After one half of play, the Vikings were up 37-14 over the Cardinals.
Hill wasn’t too worried about them catching up, but he was cautious about the team getting too relaxed.
“I was worried that we’d get lackadaisical and we did that for a while in the second half,” Hill said. “We didn’t guard and they were getting some easy buckets, but overall it was a great defensive game.”
During the first half, the Vikings had a 43 percent field goal average for the first half, whereas the Cardinals shot only 15.2 percent the first half. The Vikings biggest lead of the first half was 33-2, likely due to the Cardinal 4.2 percent shooting percentage in the first 15 minutes of play.
The Cardinals #32 Connor Raridon led the Cardinals with 10 points the first half, whereas as freshman Chrishawn Orange led the Vikings with 15 points.
Orange is happy as his confidence continues to grow on the team.
“I knew I was going to get some open looks (during tonight’s game),” Orange said. “Coach said if I get those looks to have some confidence.”
During the second half, the Vikings lead never fell below double digits as they outscored the cardinals by four points.
After defeating conference rival North Central, Augustana will travel to Carthage College Saturday to continue their battle against teams in the conference.
Coach Grey Giovanine felt the win would help in the upcoming game.
“It’s always good to come off a win,” Giovanine said. “It’ll give you more bounce in your step and more energy so we’ll be ready for a great road trip Saturday.”