Men's Basketball 11/22/05 -- Augsburg 57, Crown (Minn.) 50 

BOXSCORE

ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. (11/22/05) -- Zeph Jones (Sr., Flint, Mich./Flint Central HS) had 11 points, nine rebounds and three steals, while Kevin Keto (Jr., Forest Lake, Minn.) had 11 points and four assists, leading Augsburg College to a season-opening, 57-50 victory over Crown College in a nonconference men's basketball game on Tuesday night at Crown.

Jones had eight points and six rebounds in the second half, as Augsburg rallied from a 29-22 halftime deficit to score the victory, sending Crown to 0-2 overall. Augsburg is now 1-0 on the season.

Mitch Jones (Jr., McCloud, Calif.) and Lucas Hall (Sr., Elk River, Minn.) had 11 points apiece for Crown, with Seth Berge (Sr., Binford, N.D./Midkota HS) adding nine points. Jones had a team-high five rebounds. Mitch Dice (So., Eden Prairie, Minn./Lutheran HS) had seven points and four rebounds.

Neither team led by four points in the first half until a 9-2 run over the final 2:59 gave the host Storm a 29-22 halftime advantage. An 8-2 Augsburg run in the first four minutes of the second half cut the Crown lead to 31-30, and a later 15-3 run -- with six points from Tait Thomsen (Jr., Prior Lake, Minn.) and four points from Jones -- gave the Auggies a 49-39 lead with 5:49 left in the second half. The Auggie lead did not shrink below five points the rest of the way.

Thomsen had 10 points and five rebounds for the Auggies. Darren Nelson (So., Richfield, Minn.) scored nine points, and Charlie Scott (Jr., Ely, Minn.) had six points.

Each team had dramatic changes in shooting from one half to the next. Augsburg was limited to just 29.2 percent shooting (7-of-24) from the field in the first half, but shot 51.7 percent (15-of-29) in the second half. Meanwhile, Crown hit 55.0 percent (11-of-20) from the field in the first half, but was limited to just 26.9 percent (7-of-26) in the second half.

Augsburg travels to Southern California for two games at the David Wells Classic on Friday and Saturday (11/25-26). Augsburg will play at Pomona-Pitzer (Calif.) on Friday at 7:30 p.m., and at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Crown hosts St. Olaf in a nonconference game on Saturday (11/26) at 3 p.m.