Saturday night both the Augustana Men’s and Women’s basketball teams had their senior nights against North Park.

Both teams honored their total of 11 seniors by defeating North Park, the Women 62-56 and the Men 96-73.

The Women opened up the night. Augustana struggled in the beginning to get any points. The Vikings put up eight points in the quarter, and were at a 10 point deficit by the start of the second. In the second quarter with the help of senior Jeni Craine and first-year Macy Beinborn, Augie started to make a comeback. They stepped up their defense and continued to get close on many attacks but kept falling short. At the half, North Park was still in the lead 32-23.

“If the refs and the calls aren’t going the right way, just honing down and staying as a five, staying as a fist together and focusing on defense is a huge thing,” Craine said. “No matter how much craziness they throw at us we always refer back to our defense. Defense gets us these games, defense wins us games.”

The second half had an immensely different pace. Augustana gave] all their effort to get back in the game. Augie picked up their defense and denied many of North Park’s advances.

Augie got back up to speed with less than two minutes left and with a three from Bienborn assisted from Craine, Augustana got the lead for the first time in the game. The third quarter ended in a 40-40 tie.

“We were actually able to come together as a team. We struggled a little bit in the first quarter and the second quarter,” senior Maddy Murillo said. “At halftime we kinda just calmed all of our nerves and we were able to pull together and play as a team and make the extra passes, take good shots, and do what we needed to get done.”

The final quarter was a success for Augustana. For most of the quarter Augie kept their lead. North Park had a spurt where they had the lead but Augie came back right away. Augie kept attacking hard at North Park and drew them to foul over and over. With forty seconds left in the game Augustana was leading by one point and North Park was in attacking position but Augie stole the ball and secured the game. The game ended in an Augustana win 62-56

“[Augustana Basketball has] taught me to work for myself and back my own strength and confidence and know that my team and my coaches have my back,” Crain said.

The men’s game was a very similar and successful story. Augie was off to a quick start, keeping a strong defense and breaking down North Park very early on. The first half continues on with many appearances from the seniors and a strong aggression on Augustana’s side.

North Park began to match Augie’s speed and the first half continued on extremely intense, the lead bouncing back and forth between both teams. Augustana won the back and forth battle when senior Donovan Ferguson had a defensive block and then a two pointer from Lucas Simon.

From that point on, Augie dominated and the half ended with Augustana in a ten point lead 45-35.

“Just stick with it,” Simon said, “there are gonna be a lot of ups and downs but you know in the end, with the help of my teammates and just hard work it’ll all work out.”

The second half began with strong determination from Augie. With the help of senior Micah Martin and Pierson Wofford, Augustana furthered their lead very early on. They didn’t let anything out of North Park and completely dominated the game.

“We came out and we did the game plan,” Wofford said. “They scored a lot of layups in the beginning but more than anything once we started taking away those layups and those easy points we just blew it open.”

Augustana made their success look easy as they continued to put points on the scoreboard. Ending in a 96-73 win.

“More than anything it’s just about the bonds and the friendships I’ve created,” Wofford said.