Junior Pierson Wofford made his first appearance in a game
situation since suffering a season-ending knee injury
last year in the exhibition game againstthe University of Illinois.
The Vikings dusted off St. Ambrose 71-51 last Sunday in
the Genesis Collegiate Challenge and will now face
Illinois State on Saturday, November 3 at Redbird Arena
in Normal, Illinois.
ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — After defeating St. Ambrose 71-51 on Sunday, October 28 in the Genesis Collegiate Challenge at the Taxslayer Center in Moline, the Augustana men's basketball team gets ready to take on NCAA Division I foe Illinois State. The Vikings and the Redbirds will tangle on Saturday, November 3 at Redbird Arena in Normal, Illinois with tip-off set for 12:00 noon.
Tickets for the game can be purchased on line at GoRedbirds.com/tickets or by calling (309) 438-8000. Doors will open at 11:00 a.m.
https://ev9.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS:ISU:B18:B02:&linkID=illinoisst&RSRC=SIDEARM&RDAT=sgl
After the game the Augustana alumni and advancement office is sponsoring a get-together at Medici (120 West North Street, Normal, Illinois 61761). There is no pre-registration for the event.
This will be the Vikings' ninth game against a Division I opponent since Giovanine took over the program in 1999, including a regular-season win at Western Illinois (76-71) in 2000-01 and an exhibition victory at Bradley (58-56) in 2014-15. Augustana has faced D1 opponents in three regular season games—Western Illinois, Southern Illinois (2004-05) and Gonzaga (2009-10) and has played exhibition contests at Northern Illinois (2007-08), Valparaiso (2011-12), Iowa (2013-14), Bradley and Illinois (2017-18).
The Vikings and Redbirds have met 13 times on the hardwood, with Augustana holding an 8-5 advantage in the series. The first 11 meetings took place between 1913 and 1922, when both schools were members of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, or "Little 19." The most recent two contests occurred during the 1958-59 and 1959-60 seasons.
In 1958-59 in Rock Island, the Vikings tied the game on Dale Schweinberger's 35-footer with two seconds left in regulation and went on to defeat the Redbirds 72-69 in overtime. Tom Anderson led Augustana with 17 points. Illinois State avenged that loss on its home court in 1959-60, as Buzz Shaw scored 20 points to lead the Redbirds to an 80-77 overtime win. Anderson and Gary Soderberg each tallied 18 for Coach Lenny Kallis' club.
Augustana blocked 12 shots and limited St. Ambrose to .317 shooting from the field Sunday, downing the Bees 71-51 in the Genesis Collegiate Challenge at the TaxSlayer Center. Senior
Joe Kellen (Rockford Lutheran HS, Rockford, Ill.) came off the bench to lead the Vikings offensively with 16 points. Coach
Grey Giovanine's squad will play a second exhibition contest at Illinois State on Saturday, November 3, before opening regular season play at Alma on Friday, November 16.
Grey Giovanine is in his 19th season as the head basketball coach at Augustana in 2017-18... The school's all-time leader in wins has guided the Vikings to nine CCIW championships and six conference tournament titles. He was named the CCIW's Coach of the Year in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017 and again in 2018... His teams have made nine NCAA Division III Tournament appearances and reached the final four in 2015 and 2017, finishing second both times... Giovanine was the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association NCAA Division III Coach of the Year in 2003, for three straight seasons from 2006 through 2008 and again in 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2017... He was named D3hoops.com Midwest Region Coach of the Year in 2011 and its Central Region Coach of the Year in 2017... He has been named Division III National Coach of the Year by
Basketball Times in 2015 and by D3hoops.com in 2017.
