Coupled with losses by Elmhurst and Wheaton, Augustana has now taken a two game lead in the loss column in its defense of the CCIW title.
After Anthony Lenoir made a layup with 10:25 left in the game to make it 51-46, the Vikings went to work and scored the next six points. Dain Swetalla made a layup at 10:10 to make it 53-46 and then Alex Washington buried a pair of free throws at 9:21 to make it 55-46. Swetalla added another layup at 8:23 to push the advantage into double digits at 57-46.
While North Park got a basket by Nick Williams at 5:56 to cut it to nine points (57-48), Pat Brusveen scored five straight points to put the contest out of reach. He nailed a three point field goal at 5:23 to make the score 60-48 and then with 4:27 remaining he drilled a pair of free throws to bump the advantage to 62-48.
Augustana led by just a single point (28-27) with 2:30 left before halftime but a 6-2 run to close out the half gave the Vikings a 34-29 halftime lead. In the second half the Vikings, helped out by .625 (10-16) shooting from the field, never trailed.
Drew Wessels led the winners with 15 points while Shaun Rose chipped in with 12 and Brusveen added 10. Wessels was four of five from the floor, including one of one from three point range. He was perfect on all six free throw attempts, grabbed a pair of rebounds, had two assists and three steals. For the game Augustana shot .535 (23-43) from the floor, including six of eight from three point range and 19 for 25 from the free throw line. The Vikings held a 28-24 edge in rebounding as Nate Swetalla led the way with six.
North Park, which shot just .377 (20-53) from the floor, got 20 points from Nick Williams but the home team connected on just six of 18 three point field goal attempts.
Augustana is now 17-3 overall and 8-1 in the CCIW while North Park falls to 12-8 and 4-5.