The Gustavus Adolphus men’s basketball team moved its record to 2-0 in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 84-67 victory over Augsburg Saturday afternoon on Gus Young Court in St. Peter. Trevor Wittwer (Jr. Redwood Falls, Minn.) and Andrew Olson (Sr., Owatonna, Minn.) led the Gusties (3-2, 2-0 MIAC) with 21 and 19 points, respectively. The Auggies (3-1, 0-1 MIAC), who suffered their first loss of the year, were led by Femi Solaja with 16 points.
Solaja opened the scoring with a lay-up to give Augsburg a 2-0 advantage. It would prove to be the Auggies’ only lead of the game as a Trevor Wittwer layup started a run of nine straight Gustavus points. Augsburg responded to the cut the seven-point lead to two at 13-11 on a layup by Dan Graf with 10:57 to play, but a pair of three-pointers apiece by Andrew Olson and Kane Sivesind (Jr., Madison, Wis.) and a layup by Wittwer extended the Gustie lead to double-digits at 27-17 with 7:08 left in the first half. Augsburg cut the lead to five points on a pair of occasions, but the Gusties took a 40-32 lead into the locker room.
The Gusties scored five straight points coming out of halftime to push the lead to 13 points at 45-32 just 1:41 into the period, but the Auggies battled back, slowly chipping away at the Gustavus lead. A jumper by Femi Solaja brought Augsburg to within five points at 59-54 with 7:22 to play, but the Gusties proved to be very tough in the second half, using free throws in the final couple of minutes to build and maintain a double-digit lead en route to the 84-67 victory.
Wittwer led all players with 21 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting from the field. Wittwer also sank nine free throws, ripped down a game-high six rebounds, and had two assists, two blocks, and two steals in 25 minutes of play. Wittwer also surpassed the 500-point mark for his career on a free throw with 6:44 to play. The junior now has 507 career points. Andrew Olson added 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including a 4-of-6 clip from three-point range. Andrew Doble (Jr., Sarasota, Fla.) added 12 points off the bench for Gustavus, which shot 56 percent (28-50) for the game and pulled down 31 rebounds. The Gusties also shot 50 percent (8-16) from three-point range and 74.1 percent (20-27) from the free throw line. Sivesind, Tyler Kramer (Sr., Hayfield, Minn.) and Phil Sowden (Sr., Brooklyn Park, Minn.) scored eight points apiece for the Gusties.
Solaja led a trio of Auggies in double-figures, finishing with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Jon Cassens added 11 points and Zach Krumwiede posted 12 points off the bench as Augsburg was held under 93 points for the first time this season. The Auggies shot 47.3 percent (26-55), but struggled from behind the three-point line (1-12; 8.3 percent) and at the free-throw line (14-25; 56 percent).
The Gusties travel to Bethel Monday evening for a MIAC game before closing out 2006 with home games against Saint John’s (Dec. 6) and UM-Morris (Dec. 11). Augsburg has road games against St. Scholastica (Dec. 4) and St. Olaf (Dec. 6) before rounding out the year with home games against Carleton (Dec. 9) and Northwestern (Minn.) (Dec. 30).