ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – Nolan Ebel (Regis Jesuit HS, Denver, Colo.) raced the length of the floor and dropped in a layup with 0.9 seconds left Saturday to lift Augustana to a 69-68 win over Carthage—the Vikings' 500th in the 48-year history of Carver Center. Coach Grey Giovanine's second-ranked club improved to 15-1 overall and 7-0 in the

CCIW, while the Red Men dropped to 7-9 on the season and 2-5 in the league.
 
Carthage's Sean Johnson was fouled with 5.5 seconds left on a wild sequence under the Augustana basket. He went to the line and calmly knocked down both free throws to put his team up 68-67.
 
After Coach Bosko Djurickovic called timeout to set up the Red Men defense, Ebel caught Pierson Wofford's (Springfield Lutheran HS, Springfield, Ill.) inbounds pass on a dead run and dashed up the left sideline. He got all the way to the basket and kissed his layup from the left side off the glass and through net with 0:00.9 showing on the clock.
 
After a Viking timeout, Ebel sealed the win by intercepting Carthage's long inbounds pass near midcourt.
 
The visitors led for most of the evening. Kienan Baltimore scored seven points as the Red Men used a 12-0 run to go from down 12-6 to up 18-12. The lead bounced back-and-forth until a Jordan Kedrowski three-pointer with 4:59 left in the first half gave Carthage a 26-24 advantage. The Red Men would lead for the rest of the period, outscoring Augustana 22-14 over the last five minutes to lead 45-38 at the break.
 
Carthage hit 10 of their last 11 field goal attempts to finish 17 of 25 (.680) for the half. Baltimore went to the locker room with 22 points. Ebel (12 points) and Brett Benning (Dakota HS, Davis, Ill.) (11) helped keep the Vikings within striking distance by combining to hit all five of their three-point tries.
 
The guests retained their advantage for the first 8½ minutes of the second half. An Ebel layup with 11:30 to play finally got Augustana even at 53-all, but there would be five more deadlocks before a Wofford putback with 2:17 remaining gave the Vikings their first lead (67-65) in nearly 23 minutes of playing time.
 
After each team got a stop, Johnson split two charity tosses with 1:14 left to pull the Red Men to within 67-66. Augustana missed three shots on its next possession before Kedrowski secured the defensive rebound that led to the wild final sequence.
 
Ebel led the Vikings with 21 points to go along with five assists. Benning added 18 points. Junior Lucas Simon (Notre Dame HS, Chicago, Ill.) dished out a game-high seven assists. Baltimore finished with 30 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Johnson scored 15 and blocked five shots and Kedrowski finished with 13.
 
Augustana finished 28 of 65 (.431) from the floor, nine of 22 (.409) from three-point range and just four of nine (.444) from the foul line. Carthage shot .500 (24-48) from the field .389 (7-18) from beyond the arc and .929 (13-14) from the free throw line. The Red Men controlled the boards by a margin of 36 to 29, but committed 17 turnovers to just eight for the Vikings.
 
Next up for Giovanine's crew is a trip to Wheaton, Illinois on Wednesday, January 16 to close out the first half of the conference season versus the Wheaton Thunder (12-4, 5-2). Tipoff at King Arena is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.