MINNEAPOLIS – The Augsburg University men's basketball team hosted the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference-leading Saint John's University Johnnies on Wednesday evening, falling 81-67 at Si Melby Hall.

THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Saint John's 81, Augsburg 61
LOCATION: Si Melby Hall, Minneapolis, Minn.
RECORDS: Augsburg 7-12 overall (5-9 MIAC), Saint John's 16-4 overall (14-1 MIAC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
• After taking an early 6-0 lead to open the game, the Johnnies continued to push the advantage and led by as many as 15 points in the first half before the Auggies cut the deficit to 12 at 41-29 at the half.
• The Auggies continued to battle throughout the second half as they cut the Saint John's lead to seven points on four occasions, but it proved to be all they could do as the Johnnies continued to fend off any Augsburg scoring surges on the way to the victory.
• The Johnnies, who received 13 votes in the most recent d3hoops.com poll, shot the ball more efficiently of the two teams, connecting on 32 of their 61 attempts from the field compared to Augsburg's 27-of-60 performance. Saint John's was also slightly more efficient from beyond the arc with a 6-of-17 (35.3%) shooting line compared to Augsburg's 8-of-23 (34.8%) shooting clip.
• Trent Gomez (FY, Two Harbors, Minn./Two Harbors HS) put together a perfect shooting night for the Auggies, hitting on all six of his shot attempts with four of them coming from beyond the arc for a total of 16 points. Austin Jentzen (SR, Brooklyn Park, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville HS) was the only other Auggie in double figures with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go along with five rebounds and a block.
• Isaac Rabaey (JR, Hastings, Minn./Hastings HS) and Colin Meade (SR, Rochester, Minn./Lourdes HS) finished with eight points each, and Caden Sullivan (FY, Minneapolis, Minn./Southwest HS) led the team with seven rebounds off the bench.

FOR THE FOES
• The Johnnies were paced by Luke Budzyn with 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting and eight rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench.

UP NEXT
• The Auggies will host Hamline University on Saturday (2/3) at 3 pm as the second game of a doubleheader with the women's teams.