Men's Basketball 2/4/04 -- Bethel 68, Augsburg 65

BOXSCORE

MINNEAPOLIS (2/2/04) -- Travis Jones (Jr., Willmar, Minn.) led all scorers with 17 points and provided the eventual game-winning basket on a jumper with 41 seconds remaining, as his Bethel College Royals rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit to claim 68-65 victory over host Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball game Wednesday night at Si Melby Hall.

Tim Gilbert (Jr., Plymouth, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) added 16 points, including four 3-pointers, and John Jacobs (Sr., Wells, Minn./United South Central HS) had a double-double with 12 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and two steals for the Royals, who improved to 15-6 overall, 10-6 in MIAC play.

Augsburg dropped to 6-15 overall and 3-13 in MIAC play, losing its seventh game in a row and 12th in its last 13 starts.

Trailing 54-45 with 12:23 remaining, Bethel slowly pulled back into the game, and over the last 4:15 of play, Bethel outscored Augsburg by an 11-1 margin to take the victory from the hosts.

Trailing 64-57, Gilbert hit a three-pointer with 3:59 left to bring the deficit to 64-60, and after Marcus "Rico" Gholson (Sr., Gary, Ind./William A. Wirt HS) hit 1-of-2 at the free-throw line for the Auggies to build the lead back to five points, the Royals scored all the remaining points.

Jones hit a jumper with 2:58 left, and after an Augsburg missed field goal and committed a foul, converted two free throws with 2:26 remaining. Augsburg turned the ball over on its next possession, but the Royals missed on a free throw after a foul. However, Augsburg missed two free throws, and after getting an offensive rebound, missed another field goal, and Bethel recovered. Augsburg got a rebound on a Bethel missed shot, but a turnover gave the ball back to the visitors with 1:10 left.

The Royals missed a short jumper, but kept possession as the ball went out of bounds. Jones then hit his go-ahead jumper with 41 seconds left, and Augsburg had another possesion to take the lead back. But the Auggies missed two field-goal attempts in the final 10 seconds, and the ball went out of bounds off an Augsburg player, giving the ball back to Bethel with eight seconds remaining.

Trent Perry (So., Arden Hills, Minn./Mounds View HS) hit two free throws with 2.6 seconds left for the final Bethel points, and Augsburg missed a long three-pointer in an attempt to tie the game at the buzzer.

Perry had eight points in the game for the Royals, with Isaac Hinrichs (So., Clara City, Minn./MACCRAY HS) adding six points and eight rebounds.

Yarzue Slowon (Jr., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS), Lucas Olson-Patterson (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper HS) and Jonathan "Jay" Gholson (So., Gary, Ind./William A. Wirt HS) had 12 points each for the Auggies. Gholson had seven rebounds and two assists, Slowon added three assists and three steals, and Olson-Patterson had five rebounds and two steals.

Zac Rosen (Jr., Plymouth, Minn./West Lutheran HS) had nine points and seven rebounds for the Auggies, with Grant Hemmingsen (So., New Brighton, Minn./Mounds View HS) adding seven points and eight rebounds.

Augsburg outrebounded Bethel by a 42-40 margin, and hit 42.6 percent (26-of-61) from the field, compared to 38.3 percent (23-of-60) for Bethel. However, Bethel connected on 9-of-26 from three-point range (34.6 percent), compared to just 2-of-12 (16.7 percent) for the Auggies.

Both teams return to action on Saturday (2/7) at 3 p.m. Augsburg plays at Hamline, while Bethel hosts St. Olaf.