After leading by just one (27-26) at halftime, Augustana was unable to breakaway from the Rams and with 3:04 left in the game a basket by Cornell's Tyler Cody knotted the game at 55-55. It was here that Wessels and Delp took over. With 2:34 left Delp collared a defensive rebound following a missed three point field goal by the Rams Forrest Becker. Delp scored on a layup at 2:12 to put the Vikings in front (57-55) for good. He then stole the ball on Cornell's next possession and scored on another layup with 1:12 left to make it 59-55 off a nice assist from Joe Caricato.
The Rams closed the margin to 59-57 with a basket by Jeff Bitter with just under a minute to play. After milking most of the shot clock, Wessels scored with just :21 left to bump the margin up to 61-57. A missed Cornell shot was rebounded by Wessels, who was immediately fouled. He made both free throws with :14 left to push the lead to 63-57. Pat Brusveen hit one of two free throws with eight seconds to play to make it 64-60. Griffin LaDew hit a three point basket at the buzzer for the Rams to account for the final score.
In the first half Cornell jumped out to an early 10 point lead (15-5) at the 12:43 mark and still led by 10 (22-12) with 7:02 left before intermission. However, the Vikings closed the half on a 15-4 run, punctuated by Wessels' basket at the buzzer that gave them a 27-26 lead.
Augustana held a 37-26 advantage in the rebounding department with Wessels leading the way with eight while Delp and Chandlor Collins each grabbed five. Wessels also had seven assists. After shooting .462 (12-26) from the floor in the first half, the Vikings lit things up at a .577 (15-26) clip in the second half. However, Cornell, which shot .333 (11-33) in the first half, was not far off the Augustana pace in the second half with a percentage of .542 (13-24).
Cornell, now 2-4 on the year, was led in scoring by LaDew with 18 points.
The Vikings are now 7-1 overall and have won four straight games since a loss at St. Ambrose on November 29.