Men's Basketball 12/5/07 -- St. Olaf 80, Augsburg 70
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MINNEAPOLIS (12/5/07) -- Steve Banick (SR, Oakdale, Minn./North St. Paul HS) scored 14 of his team-high 19 points in the second half, as St. Olaf College rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit to claim an 80-70 win over host Augsburg College in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball game on Wednesday night at Augsburg's Si Melby Hall.
Augsburg (0-6 overall, 0-3 MIAC) was unable to take advantage of four players scoring in double figures, led by Jon Cassens (SO, Prior Lake, Minn.), who claimed his second collegiate double-double with 20 points and a career-high 11 assists. Nate Alm (JR, Eden Prairie, Minn.) scored 14 points with seven asists and two blocked shots. Justin Kozlowski * (SR, Wausau, Wis/Wausau Newman HS) scored 12 points with five assists, and Femi Solaja (SR, Cottage Grove, Minn./St. Paul Harding HS) scored 10 points with nine rebounds. Darren Nelson * (JR, Richfield, Minn.) scored seven points.
St. Olaf (3-4 overall, 1-1 MIAC) claimed a 36-31 edge in rebounding and a 27-7 advantage in bench scoring, primarily from Brady McMahon (JR, Cottage Grove, Minn./Park HS), who had a double-double with 19 points -- on 8-of-9 shooting from the field -- and 13 rebounds. Bobby Hunter (SR, West St. Paul, Minn./Henry Sibley HS) scored 13 points. Chad Norberg (SR, Northfield, Minn.) scored nine points with five rebounds and four assists, and Banick added seven assists for the Oles. Mark Torell (SO, Plymouth, Minn./Armstrong HS) scored eight points with four assists, two blocked shots and four rebounds.
The back-and-forth game featured 11 ties and 11 lead changes -- 10 ties and six lead changes in the first half.
Tied at 32-32 at halftime, Augsburg sprinted to its biggest lead of the game, with a 13-2 run over a 5:32 span to take a 45-34 advantage. Alm had eight points for the Auggies in the scoring run. But St. Olaf sprinted back with a 17-2 run of its own, taking a 51-47 lead with 8:45 left. Torrell had six points for the Oles in the run, while Nate Krosschell (FY, Edina, Minn.) had five points. Another run -- 15-4 over a 4:03 span -- gave the Oles their biggest lead of the game, 70-58 with 2:22 left.
Augsburg shot 47.5 percent (28-of-59) from the field, but just 56.3 percent (9-of-16) from the free-throw line. Meanwhile, St. Olaf shot 49.2 percent (29-of-59) from the field -- including 59.3 percent (16-of-27) in the second half -- and 84.2 percent (16-of-19) from the free-throw line.
Augsburg is idle until Saturday, Dec. 15 at 3 p.m., when it hosts St. Scholastica in a nonconference contest at Si Melby Hall. St. Olaf has a conference game against St. Thomas this Saturday (12/8) at 3 p.m. in Northfield.
