No. 12 Augie grinds out another CCIW victory
Just when the Millikin Big Blue and standout Tunde Ogunleye appeared ready to sack the Augustana Vikings on Wednesday night at the Carver P.E. Center, the 12th-ranked Vikings went to the ground.
Check that. Augie went to the grind.
“We’re grinders,” Vikings coach Grey Giovanine said of a 71-63 come-from-behind Augustana victory in a midweek College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin basketball clash. “This team’s only chance to win is to just kind of dig in and grind it out.”
The Vikings had some grinding to do after hitting just 10 of 30 first-half shots and falling behind 30-24 at the break.
They were down 40-32 with 15 minutes remaining in the game after Ogunleye — a transfer from Pennsylvania and reportedly no relation to Chicago Bears pass rusher Adewale Ogunleye — dropped back-to-back 3-pointers to run his point total for the contest to 20.
The Vikings took a timeout, regrouped and went on a 12-3 run to take their first lead of the contest, 44-43, on Dain Swetalla jump hook at 9:48.
“I like that nobody panicked,’’ Giovanine said. “We just kept competing and stuck with our stuff. ... I thought our defensive energy was better in the second half.”
Strong man-to-man defense bottled Ogunleye for a key stretch and stoked an 8-0 run that gave the hosts a 57-49 lead with just under 6 minutes to play. That all but sealed Augie’s 12th win in 16 starts and lifted the Vikings to 3-2 in the tightly bunched CCIW race.
“Defensive energy and a commitment to defense gave us the game down the stretch,’’ said sophomore guard Matt Pelton, who led the Vikings with 17 points. “Throughout the game we tried to bring more energy. We know if we play hard on defense for 40 minutes, we can grind out games.”
Ogunleye, a 6-foot-2 swingman, finished with 31 points on 13-for-19 shooting, and he added eight rebounds.
“He was their guy and he was outstanding,” Giovanine said.
Ogunleye scored five more unanswered points after Augie built its 57-49 bulge to briefly draw the Big Blue (8-8, 1-4) to within 57-54. The Vikings, though, kept grinding and hit 12 of 13 free throws in the final 4:30 to ease away.
Swetalla scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half and Brett Wessels scored all of his 11 after intermission, matching the 11-point output of Chandler Collins.
The Vikings are among three second-place teams chasing CCIW leader Carthage, which improved to 4-1 Wednesday. North Central comes to Carver on Saturday.
Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.