Men’s basketball adds two to six game winning streak

By Tyler Crissman

Mirror Staff Writer
December 7, 2007

Christmas came a little early for the Augustana Viking men’s basketball team, and just keeps on coming.

The Viking Men’s Basketball team played two games in the past week, the first on Saturday, Dec. 8, and the other Tuesday, Dec. 4. Both times the men ended with a win. They defeated the Missouri Southern State University Lions on Saturday 79-77, and then came home to defeat the Wayne State College Wildcats 75-69 on Tuesday. With two wins, the Vikings improved to a record of 7-1, winning the last six games straight.

Against Missouri Southern, the game was tight the entire night. At halftime, the score was 43-40, with the Vikings up by three. As the second half progressed, senior point guard Corey McIntosh put up 33 points total, and senior Tom VerDouw scored 14 points for the Vikings, including a late buzzer beating shot. This shot, which ended up giving the Vikings the win, helped the Vikings to defeat Missouri Southern, 79-77.

On Tuesday, the Vikings returned home to the Elmen Center, where they took on Wayne State. The Vikings struggled a little at first, allowing Wayne State to put up 31 points and lead at half time. However, the Vikings came out strong in the second half, with VerDouw opening up a scoring drive early, putting away three straight points, which gave the Vikings a slight lead, 32-31. Both teams took turns scoring, until the

Vikings would end up scoring eleven unanswered points to give the Vikings a lead of 49-40 with a little over eleven minutes left to play. Wayne State tried to score many points, however, they were shut down by the Vikings, who went on a final 10 point scoring run. The Vikings would end up coming back and winning the game, 75-69.

Even though the games were close, the team was happy that they could come away with wins according to VerDouw.

“I think we can attribute both wins to playing as a team,” VerDouw said. “There was a continual theme of teammates picking each other up, which was crucial for our success.”

Next up the Vikings will be the University of Sioux Falls Cougars in the Prairie Spirit Charitable Challenge, on Dec. 10. Junior Eric Krogman thinks that the team will prepare well for the game, and will be ready next Monday.

“For us it is just another game, as long as we play up to our potential we will be fine. Since we have had the two previous games, we have not had much time to prepare for USF yet, but we have the rest of the week from Thursday to Sunday” Krogman said. “I am sure that we will prepare for them like we would any other team, by working on things that we need to improve on as a team, then going over the things that they do so we are prepared for them on the 10th”.