Men's Basketball 1/26/05 -- St. Mary's 61, Augsburg 49

BOXSCORE

MINNEAPOLIS (1/26/05) -- Michael Rohr (Fr., Bloomingdale, Ill./Lake Park HS) hit 8-of-12 from the field and led all players with 20 points, as St. Mary's University jumped out to an early 19-9 lead and never looked back en route to a 61-49 victory over host Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball game Wednesday night at Si Melby Hall.

Eric Lear (Fr., Antioch, Ill.) hit 6-of-12 from the field and scored 16 points with four assists for the Cardinals, now 4-13 overall and 3-9 in MIAC play.

Lucas Olson-Patterson (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper HS) had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds for Augsburg, now 7-10 overall, 5-7 in MIAC play. Augsburg has lost three games in a row and six of its last eight contests.

Augsburg held the lead just once, in the opening 15 seconds of play on a three-point play by Dan Graf (So., Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS). But Lear hit consecutive baskets, including a three-pointer, and the Cardinals ran off a 19-6 run over the next five minutes. Lear and Rohr had seven points each in the run.

St. Mary's kept the lead at or near double-digits for most of the first half, before a late Augsburg run trimmed the advantage to seven points, 29-22 at halftime.

Consecutive jumpers by Graf to open the second half cut the Cardinals' lead to three points, 29-26. But that was the closest the Auggies could get, as St. Mary's used a 19-6 run over a six-minute span to take a 16-point advantage, 48-32 with 12:10 remaining. Augsburg did not cut the lead under 10 points the rest of the way.

St. Mary's hit 45.8 percent from the field (22-of-48), while Augsburg was limited to just 33.9 percent from the field (19-of-56). The Cardinals hit 50 percent from the field (11-of-22) in the second half, while Augsburg hit just 30 percent (9-of-30). Both teams had 18 turnovers, but St. Mary's converted 19 points off the Auggie miscues, compared to just 11 for Augsburg.

Jeff Tendall (Jr., LeClaire, Iowa/Pleasant Valley HS) had 13 points, six rebounds and five steals for the Cardinals, while Dan Kloak (Jr., Elmwood Park, Ill./Fenwick HS) had five assists and five rebounds.

Graf had 13 points and three assists for the Auggies, but was limited to 0-of-4 from beyond the three-point arc. Olson-Patterson was 0-for-7 from beyond the arc. Augsburg, as a team, went 3-for-24 (12.5 percent) from three-point range. Justin Kozlowski (Fr., Wausau, Wis./Wausau Newman HS) scored 10 points.

Both teams are in action on Saturday (1/29) at 3 p.m., with Augsburg playing at Bethel and St. Mary's hosting Macalester.