With a strong sophomore performance leading the Augustana men’s basketball team they won 77- 64 and improved their record to 5-1 after defeating the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh at 7 p.m. tonight.
To start the game, won the tip off and senior Jacob Johnston got the first point of the game, putting Augustana on the scoreboard.
Augustana led the half against Oshkosh with their 17 of 28 field goals to the titans 12 of 18. They also had half the turnovers that the UW-Oshkosh Titans had as Augustana had six to their 12.
At 13:28 in the first half, Augustana had five fouls and only continued to rack up fouls, ultimately earning nine fouls. This gave the Titans plenty of opportunities to score on free throws. The Titans scored 8 out of the 9 free throws in the first half.
Augustana led at halftime with a score of 38-35.
However, the Vikings were able to turn around their foul problems in the second half as they only earned seven, whereas the Titans earned 13 fouls.
Going into the locker room after the first half, head coach Grey Giovanine talked to the team about rectifying their play style to compensate for the fouls.
“We just got in better positioning (in the second half) and had better awareness,” Giovanine said.
In the second half, the Vikings led the way in multiple areas. They scored 19 points off the bench, whereas the Titans only had six. Also, the Vikings opened up from the three point mark, hitting four out of eight of their three point shots. The Titans, on the other hand, were only able to hit two of their 13 three point shots.
What could have contributed to the Titans 15.4% success at hitting three point shots is how Giovanine shifted their defense in the second half.
“In the second half defensively we really improved,” Giovanine said. “We had our key players who really played well down the stretch.”
Giovanine said he was proud of the win over the Titans.
“We were really excited to get a win against a top 20 (in the nation) opponent. They are favored to win the Wisconsin state league. It was a hard fought game,” Giovanine said.
The Vikings next game will be against North Park University at 7 p.m. this Saturday at the Roy J. Carver Center. Sortillo said this game helped prepare them for their upcoming game.
“The next game against North Park is going to be a transition defense game. That’s something we can always get better at,” Sortillo said. “They have a couple of really great players and we are going to have to key in on those guys.”

Gallery • 4 Photos

Sophomore guard Nolan Ebel tries to make a shot through the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh defense on Nov. 30. The Vikings defeated the Titans 77-64. Photo by Tawanda Mberikwazvo.