Men’s basketball pulls off a close win against Carthage College 83-81. The two teams battled it out on Augie’s home court at the Carver Center on Saturday, Feb. 15.
Augustana improves 17-7 for the season and 11-4 in the CCIW conference. Top scorer of the game, senior Austin Elledge, totaled 26 points by the end of the game, just tailing a personal best this season of 27 points against Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
The high-stakes game was anticipated after the last match-up against Carthage with the Vikings winning 84-68.
“Going into the game, we knew it was going to be a tough one,” Elledge said. “Carthage is a good team and can upset anyone on any night in our league. We’ve been in situations where we’ve been down all year and it’s all about staying together and executing every possession.”
Throughout the first half, Augie was struggling to break the zone defense, forcing the Vikings to take more difficult outside shots. The first period ended, with a score of 42-35, Carthage in the lead.
Senior Pierson Wofford managed to grab 10 clean rebounds along with a tally of 19 points on the scoreboard throughout the duration of the game.
“We just didn’t come ready to play, but once everyone got their heads together and we started playing like a team, then we were good,” Wofford said. “We were frustrated about the officiating throughout, but that is just the way the game is. We need to be ready for everything and anything come postseason, so this was a good test.”
According to Wofford, Elledge “hit some big shots” which got us out in transition which we are at our best.”
Wofford rebounded a missed layup from the visiting team and got the ball to teammate Jacob Pauley, who sunk a three-point shot to tie the game up 48-48.
The last minutes of the game were drawn out by multiple fouls and six timeouts called from both teams’ benches. Leading into the final quarter, both teams continued to persist as they fought for the win.
During the end of fourth quarter the game came to an end with Augie at 83 points, and Carthage at 81 points.
Stay in the loop of Augustana’s Men’s Basketball team and catch the last CCIW game this Saturday, Feb. 22, where they will go up against North Park College in the Roy J. Carver Center.
“North Park is a good team and they will come ready to compete,” Wofford said. “We need to have a great week of practice and prep to not only get ready for them, but to also get us ready for the postseason. I’m very giddy to get to the conference tourney, but it’s one game at a time and we gotta win on Saturday.”
