Men's Basketball 1/21/04 -- Gustavus Adolphus 71, Augsburg 52

BOXSCORE

MINNEAPOLIS (1/21/04) -- Tim Brown (Sr., Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson HS) scored a game-high 25 points, leading Gustavus Adolphus College to a 71-52 victory over host Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball game on Wednesday night at Si Melby Hall.

Gustavus, last year's NCAA Division III national runner-up and current No. 25-ranked team in the D3hoops.com Division III national poll, is now 12-4 overall and 10-1 in MIAC play. Gustavus has won its last six games in a row and seven of its last eight. Augsburg dropped to 6-10 overall, 3-8 in MIAC play. The Auggies have now lost seven of their last eight games.

After three ties and six lead changes in the first 10 minutes of play, a 13-0 run over a 3:23 span midway through the first half gave the Gusties a 12-point lead (22-10), a lead that Augsburg was unable to cut under eight points the rest of the way.

Gustavus hit five straight field goals in the decisive 13-0 run, with Brown scoring five points and Chris TeBrake (Sr., St. Peter, Minn.) scoring three points. Meanwhile, Augsburg went 0-4 in the same span with two turnovers. Gustavus led 37-23 at halftime.

Trailing by 19 points with 12:07 left, Augsburg cut the lead to 12 points on a 9-2 run, with Larry Burgess (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./North HS) scoring seven of the nine Auggie points to trim the advantage to 48-36 with 8:59 remaining.

But with the Auggies trailing 50-38 a minute later, Gustavus used a 12-4 advantage to take its biggest lead of the game, 62-42 with 4:08 left. Brown had six points in the run, with Eric Nelson (Sr., Mendota Heights, Minn./Henry Sibley HS) adding four points.

Nelson had 16 points and three rebounds for the Gusties, while Doug Espenson (Jr., Mankato, Minn./East HS) had 12 points, five rebounds and four assists. TeBrake had five points, seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals. John Whippler (So., Vadnais Heights, Minn.) had six points and five rebounds.

Augsburg was paced by Lucas Olson-Patterson (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper HS), who had 13 points and nine rebounds. Burgess had 11 points and four rebounds. Marcus "Rico" Gholson (Sr., Gary, Ind./William A. Wirt HS) had nine oints, as did his younger brother, Jonathan Gholson (So., Gary, Ind./William A. Wirt HS), who added five rebounds.

Gustavus outrebounded Augsburg by a 43-38 margin and converted 41 percent of its field goals (25-of-61), compared to 33.9 percent for Augsburg (20-of-59). Gustavus hit six 3-pointers and went 15-of-20 at the free-throw line, compared to four 3-pointers and 8-of-13 at the charity stripe for the Auggies.

Both teams return to MIAC play on Saturday (1/24) at 3 p.m., with Gustavus playing at Concordia-Moorhead and Augsburg playing at Carleton. Both games are men's and women's doubleheaders, with the women's games starting at 1 p.m.