Men's Basketball 2/12/03 -- St. Olaf 69, Augsburg 49
BOXSCORE
Hamline outscores Augsburg 14-5 in OT, tops Auggies 78-69.
NORTHFIELD, Minn. (2/12/03) -- Justin Bonestroo (Sr., Stillwater, Minn.) and Mike Ludwig (Sr., Blaine, Minn.) had double-doubles in the St. Olaf College men's basketball team's rout of visiting Augsburg College 69-49 in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest Wednesday night at Skoglund Athletic Center.
With losses by Hamline and Macalester, the Oles (12-10 overall, 8-9 MIAC) moved into sole possession of the final playoff spot in the six-team MIAC postseason playoffs with three games to play. Meanwhile, Augsburg (10-13 overall, 7-11 MIAC), which had been in command of its own postseason playoff destiny before dropping its last two games, is now a game-and-a-half behind St. Olaf for the final playoff spot.
Augsburg has two conference games remaining, both at home -- against St. Mary's on Saturday (2/15) at 3 p.m. and against Concordia-Moorhead next Wednesday (2/19) at 7:30 p.m. Realistically, Augsburg must win both games in order to have any hope of qualifying for the playoffs, while hoping for losses by the teams ahead of it in the race for sixth place -- Macalester (7-10 in MIAC), Hamline (7-10) and St. Olaf (8-9). Macalester hosts St. Olaf on Saturday, while Hamline hosts Concordia-Moorhead. Next Wednesday, St. Olaf hosts St. Thomas and Macalester hosts Hamline. Next Saturday (2/22), St. Olaf plays at Hamline and Macalester plays at St. John's, while Augsburg has the final Saturday of the regular season off.
Ludwig had 16 of his game-high 18 points in the first half and coralled 11 rebounds. Bonestroo tallied 14 points and 11 boards.
Andy Grimsrud (So., Zumbrota, Minn./Zumbrota-Mazeppa HS) had a career-high 11 points in his first start. Grimsrud filled in for Matt Schlenker, who missed because of a minor hand injury. Schlenker is listed as day-to-day. Kevin Jaunich (Sr., Delano, Minn.) added 10 points in the win.
Jay Howard * (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.) was the only Auggie in double figures with 11 points.
Nick Peters * (Sr., St. Peter, Minn./Nicollet HS) had eight points, and
Jonathan Gholson (Fr., Gary, Ind./William A. Wirt HS) had seven points.
Yarzue Slowon (So., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS), who played 25 minutes, was held scoreless for the first time this season.
The Oles had 20 assists and just 10 turnovers, while Augsburg had nine assists and 15 giveaways.
Augsburg had a poor shooting night, hitting just 18-of-60 (30.0 percent) from the field, 5-of-24 (20.8 percent) from three-point range, and only 8-of-15 (53.3 percent) from the free-throw line. Meanwhile, St. Olaf hit 42.2 percent (27-of-64) from the field and 10-of-14 (71.4 percent) from the line.
