On Friday, Feb. 28, the men’s basketball team fell to the number 16 ranked Illinois-Wesleyan University Titans in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) tournament semifinals. This comes after a thrilling 85-76 victory over the Titans on Senior Day on Feb. 22 and a 92-78 win over Elmhurst University in the conference tournament quarterfinals.
This game caps off a season of vast improvement for the Vikings. This year, the team finished with a 17-10 overall record and a 9-7 record in conference, while the team finished 9-17 last year with a 6-10 record in conference play. This is something that head coach Jordan Delp wanted to do in his first full season at the helm, after taking over midseason last season.
“One of the things we talked about was the opportunity to re-establish an identity,” Delp said. “A lot of that is centered around our culture, how we do things and who we want to be. For our program to be able to experience winning and to finish with a winning record, overall and in the conference season, is something that in the future, we’ll all be able to look back and hang our hat on a little bit.”
Going into the Vikings’ senior day game against the Titans, the team was coming off of a 101-76 win against the Wheaton College Thunder, where Fifth-Year Tyler Knuth scored 38 points. Also, the team was playing for a chance to host a CCIW tournament game at home, which would be the first since 2019.
On their first possession, Illinois-Wesleyan scored on their first shot. But the Vikings, led by Knuth’s early 12 points, went on a scoring frenzy and led by 18 at one point. Throughout the game, the Carver Crazies, the Augustana student section, was loud and used their voices to help the team to a 45-39 lead at halftime. Despite playing for four years at Augustana, players such as senior Mikey Hamilton were appreciative of the energetic support from fans.
“I think that has been the greatest environment I’ve ever played in at Augustana,” Hamilton said. “Seeing all the support and seeing everybody have a good time and watch good quality basketball is what we want to get the Augustana basketball team back to doing. I think we’ve taken long strides to doing that this season.”
The Vikings held onto the lead and did not allow the Titans to reach within five points the whole second half. In the half, the game got chippier with trash talk from both sides continuing on. Junior Staishaun Kelley played crucial defensive possessions and in the midst of a heated couple minutes, picked up a technical foul. In the end, the Vikings picked up the upset win over the Titans and clinched home court advantage in the first round of the CCIW tournament.
“Since I came here, they reiterated that it’s a rival game, so it was always going to get chippy,” Kelley said. “With the things that went on, it made it a little bit more chippier. There was a lot of talking back and forth and I received the tech, but it was probably one of the most fun games that I’ve been a part of.”
In the team’s opening round game against Elmhurst, the Vikings nearly controlled the game from start to finish, defeating Elmhurst 92-78. Kelley’s season-high 29-points led the team, followed by sophomore Ray Maurchie’s 16 points and Knuth’s 12 points to help the team advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2021.
The third Augustana and Illinois-Wesleyan matchup of the season was not as joyous as the second one for the Vikings. The Titans quickly broke out to a lead and a late scoring push ballooned the lead to 40-20 at halftime, which proved to be fatal for the Vikings. Despite a huge second half comeback for Augustana, it was not enough and the team fell 70-65 to end their conference championship hopes.
“I believe it’s the re-emergence of Augustana basketball and the culture that we’ve had,” Senior Anthony Cooper said. “Coach Delp has done a really good job of bringing that back. I hope our impact will help out all the generations of Augie basketball in the future.”
