Men's Basketball -- St. Mary's 72, Augsburg 66
Story courtesy of Winona Daily News
WINONA, Minn. (1/3/00) -- The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team picked an odd time to assert its home-court advantage.
SMU Gymnasium simply hadn't been a cozy place for the Cardinals prior to Monday night's game against Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference co-leader Augsburg. SMU was 0-3 at home, was coming off a three-week layoff (as were the Auggies), and school was still out of session, meaning the stands were sparsely occupied and missing the usual contingent of Cardinal crazies.
Still, SMU put together a hustling, inspired effort and upset Augsburg 72-66.
"It's a big win," said Cardinals sophomore guard Jason Dzick, who led the team with 14 points off the bench. "Especially after the Christmas break. Our minds were focused and we need to build off this win. We feel good about it -- it's our home court and we need to play here with pride."
SMU head coach Bob Biebel was pleased with the win, the second overall this season and first at home since Feb. 10, 1999, but admitted his team hasn't turned the corner yet.
"We talked about defending our home court all week," Biebel said. "We hadn't done a good job here. It was a good night for us and a lot of guys gave great efforts ... But we've been in this position before. Now we have to get it done against St. Olaf."
The Cardinals shot better (51.9 pct. to 42.3 pct.), rebounded better (46-22), and handled Augsburg's pressure defense, but those weren't the only reasons they won.
Most importantly, SMU (2-2 MIAC, 2-6 overall) put together two 12-0 runs, one in each half. The first one got them out of a four-point hole and put them in a 24-16 lead. The second one gave them a 14-point lead (57-43) which they kept, barely.
Also, the Cardinals played great defense on Auggies leading scorer Justin Wismer, who came in averaging 17.5 points per game, holding him to eight points, thanks mostly to freshman Nick Michaels; Augsburg was without starting center Matt Davis and his 7.3 rebounds per game for unspecified team reasons, and his replacement, Kyle Crubel, was ineffective; and SMU center Ryan Rankin shook off foul trouble to score 12 points, six in the final 3 minutes, 17 seconds.
"We kind of played lazy, kind of played tired, and you can't do that," said Auggies coach Brian Ammann, who sent superstar Devean George to the NBA after last year. "We are not as powerful as last year, so we try to create turnovers, which we did, but we didn't convert them into points. If we had done that, we would have been fine."
Augsburg (3-1 MIAC, 4-3 overall) forced 23 turnovers and committed 17.
SMU took the lead for good with a 12-0 run midway through the first half. The Cardinals led 32-24 at the break.
Jeoffrey Reed put a charge into Augsburg early in the second half, scoring nine of his game-high 16 points by the 16:46 mark to cut SMU's lead to 36-33. The Cardinals were clinging to a 45-43 lead four minutes later when they went on another 12-0 run.
Lance Larson converted a steal to start the run and John Oleksyn and Dzick hit 3-pointers as the margin grew to 57-43.
Jason Beckendorf (13 points) hit back-to-back threes and Augsburg added four more unanswered points, bringing it to 57-53. SMU stayed ahead as the game wound down but when Reed drained a clutch 3-pointer with 20.9 seconds left, it was a two-point game again (68-66).
Then, SMU came up with its biggest play of the night, breaking the full-court press and getting the ball to Rankin on the opposite baseline. He missed the shot over his defender, but Andy Bohnker (12 points, 11 rebounds) put in the rebound with 11.1 seconds left to make it 70-66 and the Cardinals hit two field goals to secure the win.
SMU plays St. Olaf at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Northfield, Minn. Augsburg hosts St. Thomas on Wednesday at Si Melby Hall, also at 7:30 p.m.
All FG 3 Pt -FT- Rebounds
Augsburg M- A M- A M- A Off Def Tot PF-D Pts A TO BLK STL Min
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*Jeoffrey Reed 5- 8 2- 4 4- 4 0 4 4 3-0 16 3 4 0 5 29
*Kevin Van Rossum 0- 6 0- 6 4- 5 0 0 0 3-0 4 2 1 0 1 23
*Josh Natzel 3- 5 0- 1 1- 4 0 1 1 2-0 7 0 2 0 1 22
*Justin Wismer 2- 7 0- 2 4- 4 3 5 8 1-0 8 1 4 2 1 28
*Jason Beckendorf 5- 10 2- 3 1- 1 1 0 1 4-0 13 0 1 0 0 30
Maurice Walker 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0 0 0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 2
John Anderson 1- 3 0- 2 0- 0 0 0 0 1-0 2 0 1 0 0 5
Chris York 0- 1 0- 1 0- 0 0 1 1 1-0 0 1 1 0 0 9
Nate Hoerr 4- 6 0- 0 2- 3 0 2 2 2-0 10 0 1 0 0 21
Travis Hinze 1- 3 0- 2 1- 2 0 0 0 0-0 3 0 2 0 0 15
Kyle Crubel 1- 3 1- 3 0- 0 1 2 3 0-0 3 0 0 0 1 16
Team 1 1 2 0 0
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Augsburg 22- 52 5-24 17-23 6 16 22 17-0 66 8 17 2 9 200
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-- First Half -- - Second Half - ---- Total ----
All FG 9- 25 36.0% 13- 27 48.1% 22- 52 42.3% Deadball
3 Pt FG 1- 10 10.0% 4- 14 28.6% 5- 24 20.8% Rebounds: 0
FT 5- 9 55.6% 12- 14 85.7% 17- 23 73.9%
All FG 3 Pt -FT- Rebounds
St. Mary's Univ. M- A M- A M- A Off Def Tot PF-D Pts A TO BLK STL Min
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*Jason Dzick 6- 10 2- 4 0- 0 0 2 2 1-0 14 3 3 0 3 27
*Jason Boll 1- 2 0- 1 2- 2 0 0 0 3-0 4 3 8 0 1 32
*John Oleksyn 2- 6 1- 2 0- 0 1 2 3 1-0 5 1 0 0 1 18
*Nick Michaels 3- 7 1- 2 1- 3 3 6 9 2-0 8 2 1 1 2 25
*Ryan Rankin 5- 8 0- 0 2- 2 0 4 4 4-0 12 1 0 0 0 17
Dan Miller 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0 1 1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Justin Voigt 2- 7 1- 5 0- 2 0 1 1 2-0 5 5 6 0 0 16
J.B. Mathison 0- 0 0- 0 4- 4 1 1 2 1-0 4 0 1 0 0 7
Lance Larson 2- 4 0- 2 0- 1 1 1 2 1-0 4 2 1 0 2 24
Tim Koryczan 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0 0 0 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 3
Jake Reichert 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0 0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Ryan Bormann 0- 1 0- 0 0- 0 0 0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 4
Andy Bohnker 5- 7 0- 0 2- 3 3 8 11 2-0 12 1 3 0 2 20
Ryan Wilt 2- 2 0- 0 0- 0 2 0 2 0-0 4 0 0 0 0 4
Team 5 4 9 0 0
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St. Mary's Univ. 28- 54 5-16 11-17 16 30 46 18-0 72 18 23 1 11 200
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-- First Half -- - Second Half - ---- Total ----
All FG 14- 27 51.9% 14- 27 51.9% 28- 54 51.9% Deadball
3 Pt FG 2- 9 22.2% 3- 7 42.9% 5- 16 31.2% Rebounds: 0
FT 2- 3 66.7% 9- 14 64.3% 11- 17 64.7%
Technical Fouls: Augsburg 1 -- Justin Wismer 1,; St. Mary's Univ. 0
Scoring by Period
1 2 Tot
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Augsburg 24 42 66
St. Mary's Univ. 32 40 72
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