BOXSCORE PHOTO GALLERY (D3PHOTOGRAPHY.COM)

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Augsburg College men's basketball star Dan Kornbaum (JR, Little Falls, Minn./Little Falls HS) posted a double-double to lead the Auggies in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff championship game. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough as the Auggies fell 92-56 to No. 1 ranked University of St. Thomas on Sunday afternoon at Schoenecker Arena.

The Tommies earn the MIAC automatic bid to the NCAA championships, while the Auggies wait to hear if they will be named as an at-large selection. The 62-team NCAA Division III championship field will be announced on Monday (2/25) at 11:30 a.m. on the ncaa.com website.

Augsburg finishes the season 21-7 overall (14-6 MIAC), the most wins for an Auggie men's basketball squad since the 1998-99 MIAC championship season.

The first half was everything MIAC basketball fans could have hoped for -- packed arena, noisy fans and great back-and-forth basketball by two very talented teams. St. Thomas jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead after Augsburg came up just short on its first three possessions. 

The Auggies found their offensive rhythm and battled back, grabbing their first lead, 14-13 off an Andy Seidlitz (JR, New Hope, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) jumper at the 14:06 mark. Augsburg grabbed its largest lead of the afternoon (25-20) off back-to-back three-pointers by Tyler Schmidt (SR, Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson HS) with 9:37 to play in the first half. The Auggies maintained their lead and, in fact, were up 35-32 with 3:49 on the clock thanks to a pair of Kornbaum jumpers, but unfortunately for the Auggies, St. Thomas closed the half on a 9-0 run and took a 41-35 lead into the locker room at the intermission.

The Tommies took advantage of their depth in the second half to stretch their lead to double-digits with just over 17 minutes to play. St. Thomas took advantage of key shooting from beyond the three-arc (12-of-20 for the game) to pull away from the Auggies in the second half and claim the MIAC postseason championship for the third consecutive season.

Augsburg was led by Kornbaum's 20-point, 10-rebound effort, marking his seventh double-double of the season. Also scoring in double figures for the Auggies was Seidlitz and Parker Hines (JR, Lakeville, Minn./Minnehaha Academy HS). Seidlitz finished with 13 points and a career-high eight assists, while adding five rebounds a block and a steal. Hines recorded 10 points, four rebounds and four assists.

St. Thomas was led by the duo Tommy Hannon and Will DeBerg, who scored 22 and 20 points respectively.

For the game, Augsburg shot 44.1 percent (26-of-59) from the field, while the Tommies hit 57.6 percent (34-of-59) from the floor and a staggering 60.0 percent (12-of-20) from three-point range. St. Thomas also grabbed a 35-25 advantage on the boards.