Women's Basketball 12/6/04 -- Bethel 91, Augsburg 67

BOXSCORE

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. (12/6/04) -- The Bethel University women's basketball team came out firing, scoring 45 points in the first half and never looking back as the Royals defeated visiting Augsburg College 91-67 in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest Monday night at the Robertson Center.

Four of five starters scored in double figures for the Royals, as they produced 66 of the 91 points to improve to 4-2 overall and 3-0 in MIAC play.

Leading the way for Bethel was sophomore center Heather Davis, who scored 18 points while also pulling down six rebounds. Jen Ahlberg added 17 points and seven assists. JoLynn Thielke contributed eight rebounds along with her 14 points and five assists. Coming off the bench for the Royals was Freshman Liz Glesne who added 10 points.

Augsburg, now 0-4 overall and 0-3 in MIAC play, was led by Katie Kelsey (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.), who put up a double-double for the Auggies as she scored a game-high 25 points with 10 rebounds, hitting 10-of-15 from the field.

Kristina Lurken (Fr., Kenyon, Minn./Kenyon-Wanamingo HS) also produced a double-double, as she added 13 points and 11 rebounds, to go with seven assists. Katie LaGrave (Fr., Okinawa, Japan/Kadena HS) had 10 points and four rebounds. No other Augsburg player had more than five points in the game.

The difference in the game came in field-goal shooting. Bethel connected on 45.2 percent of its shots from the field (33-of-73), including hitting 45.5 percent (10-of-22) from three-point range. Meanwhile, Augsburg managed just 36.4 percent shooting from the field (24-of-66), going 0-for-7 from beyond the three-point arc.

Bethel outscored the Auggies 22-6 over the first 10 minutes of play and led 45-17 at halftime. Bethel extended its lead to as many as 44 points in the second half, before Augsburg trimmed the advantage to 24 points in the closing minutes.

Both teams have home contests on Wednesday (12/8) at 7:30 p.m., with Augsburg hosting Carleton at Si Melby Hall and Bethel hosting St. Benedict.