Men's basketball clips Augsburg, 85-84 

BOXSCORE

Sophomore Jon DeRock netted 34 points, including a three-point play with 1:11 left in the contest that put the Pipers up for good, as Hamline defeated Augsburg 85-84 Wednesday night at Hutton Arena.

DeRock shot 12-of-16 from the field including 6-of-7 from three-point range, but the Pipers trailed by one until the guard hit a floater in the lane and was fouled by Auggie Dan Graf. DeRock hit the free throw to put the Pipers (6-14, 4-11 in the MIAC) up 85-83.

Augsburg (8-11, 5-9) cut the lead to 85-84 on their next possession when Jon Cassens hit 1-of-2 from the line. The Auggies had chances to tie or go ahead, but Zach Krumweide missed a pair of free throws with 3.9 seconds left. After the Pipers knocked the rebound out of bounds, Krumweide had the ball stripped by Sam Wiener on the inbounds play as time expired.

Both teams shot well from the floor in the first half as the Auggies took a 52-46 lead at the break. Femi Solaja scored 16 of his team-high 19 points in the first half to lead Augsburg to 18-of-29 shooting from the field in the first 20 minutes (62.1 percent). Hamline was 16-of-24 from the field (66.7 percent) in the first half.

Sophomore Tony Thrasher added 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Senior Sam Wiener scored eight points and had seven assists in the contest.

Solaja led four Auggies in double figures. Darren Nelson tallied 17 points off the bench. Chuck Scott * chipped in 12 points and David Olson added 10 points on 3-of-3 shooting from three-point range.

Augsburg led by as many as 10 points in the second half before the Pipers went on a 14-3 run. Thrasher had two threes and eight points in the run. Chad Rich and Wiener also added three-pointers in the spurt that lasted four minutes.

The Pipers will host Concordia Saturday afternoon at Hutton Arena. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m.