Men's Basketball 2/16/05 -- Augsburg 65, St. John's 62 

BOXSCORE

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (2/16/05) -- Zeph Jones (Jr., Flint, Mich./Flint Central HS) scored nine of his 13 points in the final six minutes of regulation time, as his Augsburg College men's basketball team rallied from a seven-point deficit in the closing span to score a 65-62 win over host St. John's University in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest Wednesday night at Sexton Arena.

Trailing 55-48 with 5:55 left, the Auggies outscored the host Johnnies 17-7, with Jones collecting nine points and Lucas Olson-Patterson (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper HS) scoring six points in the closing stretch.

Augsburg is now 9-15 overall, 7-12 in MIAC play, completing a season sweep of St. John's in the process. The Johnnies fall to 8-16 overall, 6-13 in MIAC play. In the teams' earlier game, an 84-80 win on Jan. 17 at Augsburg, the Auggies rallied from another seven-point deficit -- that time in the final 55 seconds of regulation -- to send the game to overtime and score the win.

Olson-Patterson led the Auggies with 20 points, six rebounds and three assists, scoring in double figures for the 22nd time this season and the 42nd time in his 46 career games at Augsburg. He reached the 20-point mark for the 13th time this season and sixth time in his last seven games.

Meanwhile, Jones scored in double figures for the first time as an Auggie, with 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists in 25 minutes of play off the bench. He went 6-for-7 from the field. Point guard Kevin Keto (So., Forest Lake, Minn.) matched his career-high with 12 points and three steals. Dan Graf (So., Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS) had nine points and four rebounds.

St. John's was paced by Paul Henrichs (Jr., Stetsonville, Wis./Medford HS), who had 22 points and 13 rebounds. Matt Ohme (So., Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson HS) had 16 points and four rebounds, and Craig Schafer (So., Anoka, Minn.) had 10 points and eight rebounds. Ryan Hinman (Sr., St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral HS) had six points, but no other Johnnie had more than four points in the game.

St. John's jumped out to a 9-2 lead, before Augsburg used a 9-0 run to take the lead back at 11-9 with 11:58 left in the first half. The Johnnies again stretched the advantage to eight points on an 18-8 run and led 31-24 at halftime. The Johnnie lead reached double-digits early in the second half at 12 points, and while Augsburg cut the lead to one point midway through the second half, the Johnnies kept the lead until the game-closing run.

Augsburg scord the final seven points of the game, after a Schaefer basket put the Johnnies in front 62-58 with 3:13 left. Zeph got an offensive rebound and putback with 2:46 left, then forced a turnover, which Olson-Patterson converted into a three-point play with 2:18 left. The teams exchanged two scoreless possessions until Jones clinched the win with a jumper with 23 seconds left. St. John's missed two 3-point attempts on its last possesion.

Both teams close their seasons on Saturday (2/19) at 3 p.m., as Augsburg plays at Macalester and St. John's plays at Gustavus.