Augie Men’s Basketball Closes Regular Season With Win

Get our free mobile app

The Augustana men’s basketball team celebrated a win in the regular-season finale and Senior Night Saturday. The Vikings topped UMary 89-69 behind another masterful performance from Isaac Fink as the senior dropped in 33 points. The contest was the second-straight 30-point performance.

In a back-and-forth battle over the game’s first five minutes. The Vikings snagged a lead it would hold for good on a Fink 3-point basket to make the score 9-7. Caden Kirkman dumped in two of his 16 points while Fink again hit another 3-pointer to make the score 14-10 with 14:51 remaining in the half.

The Vikings’ lead grew to seven points after a pair of Sam Rensch free throws midway through the half with the halftime score settling at 40-32.

Nursing a six-point lead with 17:32 remaining, Augustana went on a run to fully take hold of the contest. The 15-4 run started with, you guessed it, a Fink 3-point basket. The run concluded with a pair of Fink free throws to make the score 61-44 nearing the midway point of the half.

A jumper from Akoi Akoi made the score 69-46, giving Augustana its biggest lead of the game to that point after Jadan Graves made a steal on defense. Caden Hinker fed the ball to Akoi for the jumper.

Although Augustana let off the gas pedal as the game neared its conclusion, UMary never threatened in the 89-69 final score.

Fink tallied his 33 points in just 29 minutes of action while Kirkman continued his strong offense in the second half of the season to the tune of 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting. Hinker led AU with eight rebounds to go with his seven points.

Augustana will host the opening round of the NSIC Tournament on campus inside the Elmen Center on Wednesday at 6:00 PM. The opponent will be noted before the end of the evening Saturday.

Coverage of Augie basketball is on KXRB 100.1 FM with Jeff Fylling.