Men's Basketball 11/16/01 -- Augsburg 77, Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) 69 

BOXSCORE

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (11/16/01) -- Playing in his first game for Augsburg College, Adam Kotewa (Jr., Mankato, Minn./Mankato West HS) scored 28 points -- 17 in the second half -- to lead Augsburg's men's basketball team to a 77-69 win over Dakota Wesleyan University (S.D.) in the first round of the Wisconsin-Eau Claire Blugold Tip-Off Tournament at W.L. Zorn Arena.

Another transfer playing in his first Augsburg game, Dwayne Starr (So., Richfield, Minn.), added 14 points -- 12 in the second half -- eight assists and two steals as Augsburg won its season-opening game. Dakota Wesleyan, an NAIA program, dropped to 2-4 overall.

Augsburg advances to play host Wisconsin-Eau Claire, which beat Northland (Wis.) 93-38 in the other first-round game Friday, in the tournament final on Saturday (11/17) at 8 p.m. at Zorn Arena. Dakota Wesleyan plays Northland in the third-place game on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Eau Claire, ranked 26th in the initial D3hoops.com Division III national preseason poll, has won its season-opening tournament in 22 of the 23 previous years, the only setback coming in 1998 when Dakota Wesleyan won the event. Brian Ammann, in his 14th season as Augsburg's head coach, earned All-Tournament Team honors at the Eau Claire tournament in 1982 and 1983, when Augsburg placed third each year -- the only two previous appearances for the Auggies in the tournament.

Kotewa, an outside-shooting specialist who transferred to Augsburg after playing his first two campaigns at Bethany Lutheran College (Mankato), hit 5-of-7 from three-point range in the game, hitting 3-of-4 in the second half. He hit 8-of-16 field goals in the game, and was 7-for-7 from the free-throw line.

Starr, who transferred to Augsburg after playing one season of basketball at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, scored six points and had an assist in a crucial 13-2 run over a four-minute span midway through the second half, as the Auggies rallied from a 43-42 deficit to take a 55-45 lead with 10:03 remaining. Though Dakota Wesleyan cut the lead to three points at 57-54 three minutes later, the Auggies never trailed again in the contest.

Josh Natzel (Sr., St. Louis Park, Minn.), the lone senior on the Auggie squad, had eight points and three rebounds. Jay Howard (So., Burnsville, Minn.) had six points and a game-high 10 rebounds, and Nathan Hennessy (So., Savage, Minn.) had seven points and eight rebounds. Rob Collins (So., Richfield, Minn.) came off the bench to score six points and add four rebounds.

Dakota Wesleyan was paced by Austin Ledeboer (Sr., Armour, S.D.), who had 29 points and seven rebounds. David Nour (Fr., Armour, S.D.) had 13 points, five rebounds and four steals, and Michael Stevenson (Jr., Dover, Del./Lake Forest HS) had 13 points. Derrick Robinson (So., Fulton, S.D./Hanson County HS) had eight points.