SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s basketball team hosted Augsburg on Wednesday night and despite a second half rally, was dealt a 93-81 conference lost as they move to 4-5 overall and 2-3 in the MIAC.
“I think our reaction to what was a disturbing ten minutes in the first half was a better mentality and physicalness that we expect to play with all the time,” said Head Coach Mark Hanson. “We got lost in that second part of the first half.”
Augsburg got on the board first with a 7-0 lead before the Gusties played catch up with an 8-5 run. Jumpshots from Pete Lundquist (Sr., Rochester), Nolan Malo (Sr., Owatonna), and Kaleb Feahn (Sr., Waseca) nearly evened the Gustie deficit for an 18-17 Augsburg lead with nine minutes remaining in the first half. The Auggies went on a 20-7 run before a Gustavus timeout. In the final six minutes Malo sunk a trio of free throws but an Augsburg scoring spree set the Gusties back 62-35 at halftime.
Gustavus went 7-7 on the charity stripe in the first half while Malo led with 16 points.
The Auggies kept the momentum going, holding a 30 point lead four minutes into the second half. Kip Schetnan (Fy., Northfield) made a three-pointer to initiate an unanswered 14 point Gustavus run to narrow the deficit. Feahn went 7-15 on field goals totaling 16 second-half points. Lundquist and Malo commanded the boards as the Gusties out rebounded the Auggies 21-11 in the second half resulting in 13 second chance points.
Despite the revival in the second half, Gustavus took A 93-81 loss to Augsburg. Lundquist finished with a double-double recording 10 rebounds and 18 points, Malo had a team high 21 points while Feahn posted 20.
“There’s a lot to happen here in the next few weeks with finals in the last week of classes, after that it’ll be some maintaining conditioning and continuing to work on skills before our next game.”
The team is back at home with a New Year’s Day game at 1:00 against Crown.