ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – After letting a 17-point lead slip away against UW-Whitewater Tuesday, 17th-ranked Augustana went right back to work and eventually matched that largest spread of the night, defeating the Warhawks 86-69 at Carver Center. Coach Grey Giovanine's club improved to 4-1 on the season, while UWW fell to 2-4.
 
The hosts never trailed in the contest. A Jarrett Tribble (Homewood-Flossmoor HS, Homewood, Ill.) layup at 14:32 of the first half gave the Vikings an 8-6 advantage and they would build on it for the rest of the half. The margin reached double digits (23-12) on a Jacob Pauley (Geneseo HS, Geneseo, Ill.) bucket midway through the period. Justin Bottorff's (Quincy Notre Dame HS, Quincy, Ill.) three-pointer at the 8:06 mark pushed the lead to 31-14.
 
A trey by Pierson Wofford (Springfield Lutheran HS, Springfield, Ill.) equaled that 17-point margin (36-19), but the Warhawks outscored Augustana 16-12 over the final five minutes of the half to get within 48-35 at intermission.
 
The Vikings shot a blistering 18 of 27 (.667) from the field in the opening 20 minutes, including five of seven (.714) from beyond the arc.
 
Bottorff tallied the first bucket of the second half, but over the next 5½ minutes, Whitewater went on a 17-2 run. Equan Ards had six points in the burst, including a spectacular alley-oop dunk off a feed from James Burks. When Bailey Kale split two free throws with 13:52 to play, the Warhawks had clawed all the way back to tie it at 52-all.
 
However, senior Lucas Simon (Notre Dame HS, Chicago, Ill.) answered with a runner in the lane and after a Bottorff steal, drilled a three-pointer to put his team back up 57-52. Augustana twice extended the margin to nine on a short Jack McDonald (Geneva HS, Geneva, Ill.) jumper (63-54) and a Pauley layup (65-56) before a Donovan Ferguson (Downers Grove South HS, Darien, Ill.) layup pushed it back to double digits at 67-56 with 8:50 to play.
 
UWW would pull to within 70-63 on a Kale three-pointer with 6:48 to play, but the Vikings responded with five straight points and the spread would fall under 10 points just once more. Wofford added two treys and a conventional three-point play as Augustana finished the game on an 11-3 run.
 
Wofford hit five of seven three-point attempts on his way to a game-high 24 points and shared game-high rebound honors with five. Pauley came off the Viking bench for 11 points and four boards, while Bottorff (10 and five) and Micah Martin (Iowa City HS, Iowa City, Iowa) (10 and four) put up similar numbers. Tribble added eight points and Ferguson seven. Each of Giovanine's point guards, Jack Jelen (Bay HS, Bay Village, Ohio) and McDonald, dished out five assists.
 
Kale scored 23 and Ards 18 to lead Whitewater.
 
Augustana finished the game 29 of 48 (.604) from the field, nine of 14 (.643) from three-point range and 19 of 27 (.704) from the free throw line. The Warhawks shot .426 (26-61) from the floor, .286 (4-14) from long range and .619 (13-21) from the foul line. The Vikings limited them to .344 shooting in the second half and won the rebound battle 35-29 to help offset 20 turnovers. UWW turned it over 14 times.
 
Augustana hits the road for the first time this season when it travels to St. Louis, Missouri to face 15th-ranked Washington University on Sunday, December 1 at noon. Giovanine will be seeking his 500th collegiate coaching victory in that game.