Vikings finish 24-9; win share of the CCIW title; reach NCAA Division III title game for the second time in three years; Chrishawn Orange earns All-America honors; Grey Giovanine shares national Coach of the Year recognition
 
The 2016-17 season saw Augustana make its second run to the national championship game in three years. The Vikings' quest for their first NCAA Division III title came up just short when Babson's Joey Flannery—the two-time national Player of the Year—blocked Nolan Ebel's (Regis Jesuit HS, Denver, Colo.) potential game-winning layup with two seconds left, preserving a 79-78 Beaver win. Augustana finished the year 24-9 overall and 11-5 in the CCIW, claiming a share of its eighth CCIW championship in the last 15 seasons. Sophomore guard Chrishawn Orange (Jacobs HS, Algonquin, Ill.) was a fourth team All-America selection by D3hoops.com and Head Coach Grey Giovanine was named national Co-Coach of the Year.
 
Jacob Johnston (Erie HS, Cordova, Ill.) averaged 17.3 points in wins at MacMurray, Alma and Calvin to open the season. Six players scored in double figures in a 106-66 home-opening win over Fontbonne before a veteran Washington University outfit handed Augustana its first loss, 68-61 at Carver Center.
 
Giovanine's bunch won five of seven to close the calendar year. Included in that seven-game stretch were the team's first three conference contests—an 87-78 loss to eventual co-champion North Park, an 86-70 win over co-champion Carthage and a 73-71 victory over Wheaton. All of those contests took place at home. On New Year's Eve, the Vikings scored a big 78-76 road win at Wisconsin-Stevens Point to head into 2017 with a record of 9-3.
 
Augustana jumped back into conference action with an 82-71 road win over CCIW preseason favorite North Central on January 4. Pierson Wofford (Springfield Lutheran HS, Springfield, Ill.) came off the bench for a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds. On January 25, the Vikings downed Elmhurst 87-76 at Carver Center—their seventh straight double-digit win in CCIW play—to improve to 15-3 overall and 8-1 in the league.
 
Having lost Wofford and facing a league schedule heavily back-loaded with road contests, Augustana went 3-4 down the regular season home stretch. Losses in its final three games, all on the road, meant sharing the conference crown with North Park and Carthage. The Red Men won the league's tie-breaker for the right to host the conference tournament.
 
The Vikings, the third seed, opened with second-seeded North Park, which had won both regular season meetings. Augustana jumped out to a 15-point halftime lead and rolled to an 86-70 win behind 21 points from Ebel and 19 from Johnston. Fourth-seed North Central knocked off top seed Carthage in the other semifinal and avenged two regular season losses by defeating the Vikings 69-64 in the title game.
 
With a 19-8 record, Augustana earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament and was sent to Whitewater, Wisconsin to face defending national champion St. Thomas in the opening round. Giovanine's crew rallied from an eight-point deficit in the final 40 seconds to win 77-74 on Orange's buzzer-beating three-pointer from the top of the key. The next night, Orange dropped in a 12-foot jumper with 1.5 seconds left to lift his team to a 72-70 win over 22nd–ranked UW-Whitewater. Dylan Sortillo (Bettendorf HS, Bettendorf, Iowa) scored a career-high 28 points.
 
The next weekend in Holland, Michigan, the Vikings downed Wartburg 80-69 and 12th-ranked Hanover 77-64 to punch the program's second final four ticket in three years.
 
In its national semifinal versus Williams, Augustana hit five three-pointers in jumping out to a 17-2 lead. The Vikings weathered a Eph rally and earned a spot in the championship game with a 90-79 win. In the title tilt, Babson led 79-72 with two and a half minutes left, but the Vikings rallied and Johnston's three-pointer with 10 seconds left trimmed the deficit to 79-78. Flannery missed the front end of a bonus opportunity with 8.8 seconds left and Brett Benning (Dakota HS, Davis, Ill.) grabbed the rebound and fed Ebel, who drove the right side for a potential game-winning layup. However Flannery, trailing the play, swatted it off the back board with less than two seconds left. Augustana fouled and Babson missed another front end, but after a Viking timeout, Johnston's three-quarter court inbounds pass was batted away, preserving the win for the Beavers. Both Orange and Ebel were named to the all-tournament team in Salem, Virginia.
 
Orange, a unanimous first team All-CCIW selection this year, was only underclassman among the 25 players named to D3hoops' All-America teams (five players each on the first through fourth teams, plus five honorable mention). He led the Vikings in scoring at 14.2 points per game and shot .511 from the field, .423 from three-point range and .782 from the foul line. He averaged 3.3 rebounds per game and finished with 56 assists and 39 steals. In eight postseason games, he upped his scoring to 15.3 points per game on shooting percentages of .550 from the field and .556 from three-point range.
 
Johnston, a second team All-CCIW performer, averaged 12.8 points per game. The 6' 5" senior led the Vikings in rebounding (5.1 rpg) and field goal percentage (.514) and also shot .366 from three-point range and .800 from the free throw line. He had 22 of a school-record 146 Augustana blocks this season.
 
Sortillo averaged 12.5 points and 3.9 rebounds per game and hit a team-best 62 three-pointers this year. The 6' 3" junior averaged 11.5 points and team-bests of 9.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game at the final four. He was a second team All-CCIW selection and is the only player in program history to play in two national championship games.
 
Ebel, a 6' 1" sophomore point guard, averaged 11.2 points per game this year and led the Vikings in assists (108), steals (43), three-point percentage (.426) and free throw percentage (.862). In NCAA Tournament play, he shared the team lead in scoring with Orange at 15.0 points per game each. He scored 37 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and dished out eight assists in Augustana's two final four contests.
 
Wofford, a 6' 4" sophomore, averaged 10.9 points and 4.2 rebounds over the season's first 18 games. He shot .565 from the field and .785 from the free throw line. In CCIW play, the Vikings' sixth man averaged 13.2 points and 5.2 rebounds while shooting .568 from the field.
 
Giovanine's fifth starter was 6' 10" freshman Micah Martin (Iowa City HS, Iowa City, Iowa), whose 60 blocked shots were just two off Adam Rue's single-season school record set in 2001-02. Martin finished the year with averages of 5.0 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, but blossomed in the postseason. In six NCAA Tournament games, he averaged 7.5 points on .690 shooting from the floor and led the team in rebounding (6.5 rpg) and blocked shots (17).
 
Valuable bench contributors in Augustana's postseason run were led by 6' 6" sophomore Benning, who averaged 11.3 points and 3.8 rebounds and shot .549 from the field and .500 from beyond the arc in NCAA tourney action. 6' 5" freshman point guard Lucas Simon (Notre Dame HS, Chicago, Ill.), 6' 9" freshman Donovan Ferguson (Downers Grove South HS, Darien, Ill.) and 6' 1" junior Brandon Schattner (Wilmot HS, Twin Lakes, Wis.) were also constants in Giovanine's postseason rotation.
 
2016-17 CCIW MEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS

TEAM	CCIW	W-L	PCT	Overall	W-L	PCT
AUGUSTANA		11-5	.688		24-9	.727
Carthage		11-5	.688		18-8	.692
North Park		11-5	.688		18-8	.692
North Central		9-7	.563		18-11	.621
Illinois Wesleyan		9-7	.563		17-8	.680
Carroll		8-8	.500		13-12	.520
Wheaton		8-8	.500		12-13	.480
Elmhurst		4-12	.250		8-17	.320
Millikin		1-15	.063		3-22	.120

 
2017 CCIW Tournament
Tarble Arena—Carthage College—Kenosha, Wisconsin
 
Semifinals—Friday, February 24
(3) AUGUSTANA 86, (2) North Park 70
(4) North Central 87, (1) Carthage 85
 
Championship—Saturday, February 25
(4) NORTH CENTRAL 69, (3) AUGUSTANA 64
 
2016-17 AUGUSTANA SUPERLATIVES
CCIW TOURNAMENT: Only school to qualify for every CCIW Tournament
D3HOOPS.COM NATIONAL RANKING: 3rd in final poll.
D3HOOPS.COM ALL-AMERICA: Chrishawn Orange (4th team)
D3HOOPS.COM NATIONAL CO-COACH OF THE YEAR: Grey Giovanine
NABC ALL-CENTRAL DISTRICT: Chrishawn Orange (2nd team)
D3HOOPS.COM ALL-CENTRAL REGION: Chrishawn Orange (3rd team)
D3HOOPS CENTRAL REGION COACH OF THE YEAR: Grey Giovanine
CCIW ALL-CONFERENCE: Chrishawn Orange (1st team); Jacob Johnston (2nd team); Dylan Sortillo (2nd team)
CCIW ACADEMIC ALL-CONFERENCE: Michael Hoekstra, Jacob Johnston, Joe Kellen, Brandon Schattner, Nic Uhlir
CCIW TEAM STATISTICAL LEADERS: Field goal Percentage—.481; Blocked shots—4.56 bpg; Steals—7.00 spg
CCIW INDIVIDUAL STATISTICAL LEADERS: Blocked shots—2.00 bpg, Micah Martin
NCAA TOP 20 TEAM RANKINGS: Blocked shots—146 (7th); Free throws made—519 (12th); Field goal percentage—.488 (20th)
NCAA TOP 50 INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS: Blocked shots—60, Micah Martin (27th); Blocked shot per game—2.07, Micah Martin (40th); Free throw percentage—.862, Nolan Ebel (50th)
INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL RECORD: Games played, season—33, Jacob Johnston, Dylan Sortillo, Nolan Ebel, Chrishawn Orange; Games started, season—33, Jacob Johnston, Dylan Sortillo, Chrishawn Orange
TEAM SCHOOL RECORD: Blocked shots, season—146
SINGLE-SEASON AUGUSTANA TOP TEN: Games played—33, Jacob Johnston, Dylan Sortillo, Nolan Ebel, Chrishawn Orange (1st-T); 31, Brett Benning, Lucas Simon (10th-T); Blocked shots—60, Micah Martin (2nd); Blocked shots per game—2.1, Micah Martin (3rd); 3-point field goals attempts—173, Dylan Sortillo (3rd); 3-point field goals—62, Dylan Sortillo (7th-T)
CAREER AUGUSTANA TOP TEN: Free throw percentage—.863, Nolan Ebel (2nd); 3-point field goals—116, Dylan Sortillo (9th-T); 3-point field goals attempts—301, Dylan Sortillo (9th-T)
 
2016-17 MEN'S BASKETBALL AWARDS
MVP: Chrishawn Orange
Leading Rebounder: Jacob Johnston
Outstanding Defender: Chrishawn Orange
Junior Varsity MVP: Nic Uhlir