Men's Basketball 12/6/06 -- Augsburg 69, St. Olaf 59

BOXSCORE

NORTHFIELD, Minn. (12/6/06) -- Jon Cassens (Fr., Prior Lake, Min.) scored 18 points -- 16 in the first half -- to lead visiting Augsburg College to a 69-59 victory over St. Olaf College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball game on Wednesday night at the Skoglund Center.

Cassens connected on 6-of-6 from the field, including 4-of-4 from three-point range, in the first half, as Augsburg led 41-21 at halftime. Trailing 10-8 with 13:07 left in the first half, Augsburg used a 16-4 run to take a double-digit lead, 24-14 with 6:45 left in the frame, and eventually built its lead to 20 points.

Augsburg led by as many as 22 points in the second half before the Oles cut the lead to single-digits, 60-53 with 1:48 left. But Augsburg went 7-of-9 at the free-throw line in the final 1:12 of play to seal the victory.

With the win, Augsburg improves to 4-2 overall, 1-1 in MIAC play, matching its number of overall victories from last season (4-21). St. Olaf is now 3-4 overall, 1-2 in MIAC play.

Chuck Scott * (Sr., Ely, Minn.) scored 11 points for the Auggies, hitting three 3-pointers. Zach Krumwiede (Fr., Trimont, Minn./Martin County West HS) had 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

As a team, Augsburg hit 10 three-pointers in the game on 21 attempts (47.6 percent).

Mark Bergstrom (Sr., Woodbury, Minn.) led the Oles with 23 points and six rebounds, going 4-of-5 from beyond the three-point arc. Jon Butala (Sr., West St. Paul, Minn./Henry Sibley HS) had nine points and Mitch Haugen (So., Rockford, Minn.) and Brady McMahon (So., Cottage Grove, Minn./Park HS) had eight points apiece, with both adding seven rebounds each.

For Augsburg, Krumwiede, playing 32 minutes off the bench, had seven assists and two steals to go along with his 11 points. Darren Nelson (So., Richfield, Minn.) had nine points, six rebounds, three steals and two assists in 29 minutes off the bench. Grant Hemmingsen (Sr., New Brighton, Minn./Mounds View HS) had eight points and three rebounds.

Augsburg returns to action on Saturday (12/9) at 1 p.m., hosting Carleton at Si Melby Hall. St. Olaf returns to action next Monday (12/11) at 7:30 p.m., hosting Hamline.