Men's Basketball 11/29/06 -- Augsburg 93, Bethany Lutheran 84
BOXSCORE
MINNEAPOLIS (11/29/06) -- Jon Cassens (Fr., Prior Lake, Minn.) scored 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting, collecting six assists, four steals and four rebounds, leading Augsburg College to a 93-84 victory over Bethany Lutheran College in a nonconference men's basketball game Wednesday night at Si Melby Hall.
Five Auggies scored in double figures, as the Auggies improved to 3-0 on the season. Mitch Dice (Jr., Savage, Minn./Bloomington Lutheran HS) had 15 points, Dan Graf (Sr., Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS) had 14 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals, and Justin Kozlowski (Jr., Wausau, Wis./Newman HS) and Zach Krumwiede (Fr., Trimont, Minn./Martin County West HS) had 11 points apiece.
Alfonso Mayfield (Sr., Milwaukee, Wis./Brookfield Central HS) led all scorers with 29 points, adding nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks for Bethany Lutheran, now 1-3 overall. Travis Priem (Jr., Janesville, Minn./Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton HS) had 14 points and Dewan Grant (Jr., Milwaukee, Wis./Nicolet HS) had 12 points.
"I'm really proud of the way our guys persevered tonight. Bethany is a well-respected ball club with some great guards. We didn't play as well as we would have liked, but we made the plays we needed to win," said Augsburg head coach Aaron Griess. "Jon Cassens was great tonight. He handled an enormous amount of pressure and led our team like a senior."
The game was a close one early, with six ties and four lead changes in the first half. Trailing 26-24 with 4:33 left in the first half, the Auggies went on a 13-2 run to close the frame, with Cassens scoring seven points in the run.
Augsburg led 37-28 at halftime and extended the lead to 18 points early in the second half, before the Vikings cut the lead to its closest margin in the second half, six points, at 63-57 with 8:04 left.
"When we're hitting on all cylinders offensively, we have the potential to be pretty good. The defensive side of the floor is lagging behind a bit, but we're spending time in practice focusing on those issues. The important thing is that we're getting better with every outing and that's all we can ask of our team," Griess said.
Augsburg connected on 47.0 percent (31-of-66) from the field, including eight 3-pointers -- three by Cassens and two each from Dice and Kozlowski. Chuck Scott * (Sr., Ely, Minn.) had a three-pointer and scored seven points with six assists.
Bethany Lutheran shot 43.8 percent (32-of-73) in the game, including a 57.5-percent (23-of-40) effort in the second half. Jeff Zimmerman (So., Nicollet, Minn.) had six points and nine rebounds, and Tommy Saffert (Fr., North Mankato, Minn./Mankato West HS) had five points and five rebounds.
Augsburg returns to action on Saturday (11/2) with its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener, a 1 p.m. game at Gustavus. Bethany Lutheran has a nonconference game at crosstown foe Minnesota State Mankato on Tuesday (12/5) at 7 p.m.
"We haven't seen much of our post players yet this year because of the nature of their matchups. We've played three teams with perimeter-oriented post players, which made it difficult for us to match up. I'm looking forward to seeing them in action as we get into MIAC play," Griess said.
