Men's Basketball 1/31/04 -- St. John's 80, Augsburg 70

BOXSCORE

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (1/31/04) -- Pat McKenzie scored 16 points, with six assists and six rebounds, leading St. John's University to an 80-70 victory over Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball game on Saturday afternoon at SJU's Sexton Arena.

Matt Ohme added 15 points, five rebounds and five assists, and Peter Gillette had 12 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots for the Johnnies, who improved to 8-11 overall and 6-8 in MIAC play.

Lucas Olson-Patterson (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper HS) had 11 points and six rebounds to lead Augsburg, now 6-13 overall and 3-11 in MIAC play. Augsburg dropped its fifth straight game and 10th in its last 11 starts.

Augsburg built an early seven-point lead -- 9-2 -- but the Johnnies rallied with the next 13 straight points to take a 15-9 lead with 14:04 left. The run was extended to 30-7, as St. John's led by 16 points, 32-16 with 7:56 left. St. John's led 42-30 at halftime and its advantage only dipped into single digits once the rest of the way.

St. John's led by as many as 22 points in the second half before Augsburg cut the lead to nine points, 77-68, with a 9-0 run over the span of two minutes, coming on five points by Casey Zilka (Sr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) and four by Kevin Keto (Fr., Forest Lake, Minn.). But the Johnnies got a three-pointer in the final minute and clinched the double-digit victory.

Fifteen Johnnies saw playing time and 10 scored. Paul Henrichs had seven points and nine rebounds, while Nate Kopetka and Kevin Markling came off the bench to score seven points each.

Jonathan Gholson (So., Gary, Ind./William A. Wirt HS) scored nine points for the Auggies, as did Larry Burgess (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./North HS) off the bench. Keto had seven points and four assists, and Yarzue Slowon (Jr., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS), Zac Rosen (Jr., Plymouth, Minn./West Lutheran HS) and Zilka had six points each.

Augsburg shot just 39.3 percent (24-of-61) from the field, including hitting just 8-of-29 (27.6 percent) in the first half. Meanwhile, St. John's hit 49.1 percent (27-of-55) from the field and outrebounded Augsburg by a 44-31 margin.

Both teams return to action on Monday (2/2) at 7:30 p.m.. Augsburg hosts St. Thomas, while St. John's plays at St. Mary's.