ONCE AGAIN A STRONG DEFENSIVE EFFORT KEYS VICTORY
For the third consecutive outing the Augustana Vikings put the defensive clamps on a College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin opponent. This time the victim was the Elmhurst Bluejays and Augustana picked up a key 76-57 victory in the Roy J. Carver PE Center. It was the third straight game that head coach Grey Giovanine’s team held its opponent under 60 points. Augustana forced the Bluejays to shoot just .390 (23-59) from the field, including .118 (2-17) from three point range. Drew Carstens (Downers Grove North HS, Downers Grove, IL), who just last Saturday became the second leading scorer in school history, led the Vikings with 17 points, 13 of those coming in the first half when Augustana broke out to a 36-26 halftime lead. Shaun Clements (Lake Zurich HS, Lake Zurich, IL), who is coming ever closer to 1,000 career points – he now has 942 – chipped in with 13 while Brad Novak (Rock Island HS, Rock Island, IL) had 12 and Jay McAdams-Thornton (Moline HS, Moline, IL) knocked down 10. The Vikings never trailed, jumping out to an 11-2 lead in the early going as Novak scored six points and Carstens had five. Eventually the first half advantage grew to 16 (35-19) with 2:28 to play. In the second half Elmhurst did manage to trim the margin to nine with 5:01 to play on a basket by Reuben Slock but Joe Baumann (Carmel HS, Mundelein, IL) nailed a three point field goal with 4:33 to play to bump the lead back up to 12. From there the Vikings finished the game with an 18-8 run. Chris Martin led Elmhurst in scoring with 19 points and he also snared 11 rebounds. Augustana moved to 11-7 overall and 5-2 in the CCIW while the Bluejays fell to 9-7 and 1-4.