Men's Basketball 11/29/02 -- Grinnell (Iowa) 144, Augsburg 114 

BOXSCORE

ORANGE CITY, Iowa (11/29/02) -- Normally, when a college basketball team scores 114 points and hits 56.3 percent from the field, it tends to win in dominating fashion.

But that wasn't the case for the Augsburg College men's basketball team on Friday night. The Auggies ran into the high-scoring attack of Grinnell College (Iowa), which hit an improbable 30 three-pointers and claimed a 144-114 win over Augsburg on Friday night in the Northwestern College (Iowa) Pizza Ranch Tournament semifinal game.

Augsburg, now 2-1, will play Peru State (Neb.) in the tournament third-place game on Saturday (11/30) at 6 p.m. Northwestern topped Peru State 100-77 in the other semifinal. Northwestern and Grinnell (2-0) will play in the tournament final on Saturday at 8 p.m.

Six Pioneers scored in double figures, topping the career-high 33 points scored by Augsburg forward Jay Howard * (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.).

Grinnell attempted 96 field goals, hitting 50 in the game, while Augsburg went 49-of-87 from the field. The difference came in three-pointers, as Augsburg managed just 2-of-13. Meanwhile, Grinnell, a team that has been among the top scoring and outside-shooting teams in the country over the last decade, fired 63 three-point shots, hitting 30, just two shy of the Division III record of 32, set by Grinnell in a 1997 game. Nine different Pioneers had at least one three-pointer.

The 144 Pioneer points fell short of the school-record 160 points the Pioneers scored in their first win this season.

Grinnell pulled ahead 79-59 at halftime, hitting 16 three-pointers (16-of-36).

Paul Nordlund and Nick Malinkowski scored 25 points apiece for the Pioneers, while Steve Wood nearly had a triple-double, with 16 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Steve Nordlund had 15 points, Matthew Brown had 14 points and Zach Carlson had 11 points.

Howard hit 14-of-20 from the field to lead the Auggies, adding five rebounds and a blocked shot.

Adam Kotewa (Sr., North Mankato, Minn./Mankato West HS) scored 17 points, while Nate Kerkhoff (Sr., Waconia, Minn.) had 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Yarzue Slowon (So., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) scored 11 points with four rebounds, six assists and three steals. Zac Rosen (So., Plymouth, Minn./West Lutheran HS) scored 10 points.

Augsburg led just once during the game. The closest the Auggies came to the Pioneers after that was trailing 28-27 with 11:55 remaining in the first half. A 19-2 run then gave the Pioneers the lead to stay. Grinnell led by as many as 35 points in the second half.