ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – Augustana pulled away from Dubuque in the second half Saturday afternoon and went on to hand the Spartans a 75-56 setback at Carver Center. Coach Mark Beinborn's Vikings improved to 2-4 on the season, while Dubuque suffered its first loss of the year after three wins.
 
Three-pointers by Abigail Zurcher and Tabira Thomas staked the visitors to an early 6-2 lead, but senior Alexis Jones (Marist HS, Chicago, Ill.) scored twice as Augustana answered with eight straight points. Senior Mia Lambert's (Macomb HS, Macomb, Ill.) trey from the right corner with two minutes remaining gave the Vikings their biggest lead of the period at 18-11. After the Spartans cut it to 18-16, senior Maddy Murillo (Antioch HS, Antioch, Ill.) scored in the paint and classmate Jeni Crain (Woodstock HS, Woodstock, Ill.) split two free throws in the final seconds to give Augustana a 21-16 edge after one quarter.
 
A Justice Edell (Rock Island HS, Rock Island, Ill.) three-pointer early in the second extended the advantage to 24-18, and although the Vikings went nearly seven minutes without another field goal, they never relinquished the lead. Thomas' conventional three-point play with 4:36 left in the half trimmed Dubuque's deficit to 25-23 and Kathleen Mathias split a pair of free throws a minute later to get the Spartans to within a point at 25-24. They trailed 27-26 before another Lambert trey with two minutes left and a steal and layup by Jones in the final minute sent the hosts to the locker room leading 32-26.
 
Another Augustana drought to start the second half allowed Dubuque to pull even for the first time since it was six-all less than three minutes into the game. Alli Bailey's layup at the 7:08 mark of the third quarter tied it at 32-all, but Jones answered with a bucket just seconds later to give the Vikings the lead for good. The Spartans trailed just 41-39 after a Thomas three-point play with 4:45 left in the period, but Augustana closed the quarter with a 16-6 spurt. Freshman Gabriela Loiz (Alleman HS, Davenport, Iowa) scored four points and fed sophomore Chaadah Hodges (Miller Career Academy, St. Louis, Mo.) for a layup just before the buzzer that made it 57-45 after three.
 
The Viking defense took it from there, limiting Dubuque to just three points in the first 8½ minutes of the fourth quarter while stretching the lead to 22 points (72-50). Jones scored the final five of her game-high 21 points in the period before Beinborn subbed out his starters in the final minute. Sophomore Olivia Hagerty's (Guilford HS, Rockford, Ill.) free throw with 19 seconds left accounted for the final.
 
Jones converted nine of 14 shots from the field and also had game highs of nine rebounds and five steals. For good measure, she shared the team lead in assists (three) with Lambert and Edell. Loiz scored 13 points, Lambert 10 and Edell eight. Crain added seven, including a pair of treys, and Murillo scored seven as well, along with four rebounds and three blocked shots. Thomas was the only Spartan to reach double digits, scoring a dozen.
 
The Vikings shot .406 (28-69) from the field, .222 (6-27) from three-point range and .722 (13-18) at the foul line, while Dubuque hit 19 of 48 (.396) from the floor, five of 16 (.313) from beyond the arc and 13 of 16 (.813) at the foul line. The Spartans won the battle of the boards 41-35, but turned it over 34 times to just 13 for Augustana.
 
Next up for Beinborn's crew is a trip to Monmouth, Illinois on Tuesday, November 26 to face the Scots, with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m.