Box Score

CHICAGO, Ill. – North Park led nearly wire-to-wire on its home court Saturday, knocking off fourth-ranked Augustana 76-69. The loss drops Coach Grey Giovanine's squad to 17-3 on the year and into a tie for the CCIW lead at 7-2. The hosts improve to 12-8 on the year and 3-6 in the league.
 
A Juwan Henry field goal in the first minute put North Park on top and junior Hunter Hill (Byron HS, Byron, Ill.) answered to knot the score at 2-2—the only tie of the evening. From there, the hosts scored nine straight and Augustana was forced to play from behind the rest of the evening.
 
The visitors cut the deficit to two on layups by juniors Tayvian Johnson (United Township HS, East Moline, Ill.) (21-19) and Ben Ryan (Washington HS, Washington, Ill.) (23-21), but Henry scored five straight to push the margin back to seven. North Park eventually took a 38-32 lead to the locker room at halftime. Senior center Nic Hoepfner (United Township HS, East Moline, Ill.) led Augustana with a dozen points in the opening stanza.
 
North Park scored five straight points early in the second half to take its biggest lead of the game (47-36) before Ryan and Johnson scored six straight to make it 47-42. A three-pointer from senior Mark Roth (Washington HS, Metamora, Ill.) and a layup by Hoepfner cut what was an eight-point North Park lead to 52-49 at the 12:43 mark. That was as close as Augustana had been since the seven-minute mark of the first half.
 
The margin bounced between three and six points until a Colin Lake trey with 4:13 to play put the hosts up 66-59. Hill and Ryan answered with consecutive layups and Henry and Johnson traded three-pointers as North Park maintained a 69-66 lead as the clock ticked under one minute. Although the hosts missed three of eight free throws in the final 53 seconds, Augustana couldn't take advantage.
 
Ryan finished with 18 points on seven of nine field goals and grabbed a dozen rebounds. Hoepfner added 15 points and Johnson 13. Augustana outshot North Park .475 (28-59) to .414 (29-70) from the field and .733 (11-15) to .615 (8-13) from the free throw line, but the home team converted 10 of 21 (.476) three-point attempts to just two of 13 (.154) for the Navy & Gold. North Park won the battle of the boards by a 41-37 margin and committed just 10 turnovers to 11 for Augustana.
 
Giovanine's Vikings return to the friendly confines of Carver Center on Wednesday, February 4, hosting North Central in an important CCIW matchup.