ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – Augustana drilled its first six three-point attempts of the second half Saturday to help erase a five-point deficit and build a 17-point lead, then had to weather a North Park comeback bid before finishing off the visitors 74-71 at Carver Center. Coach Steve Schafer's squad won its fifth in a row to improve to 5-2 overall and in the CCIW. NPU fell to 1-10 on the season and in the conference.
 
Plagued by 12 first-half turnovers, Augustana trailed 33-30 at the break. North Park's Mike Osborne scored on the opening possession of the second stanza to give his team a 35-30 advantage before Luke Johnson (Longmont HS, Longmont, Colo.) answered with a three-pointer, igniting a 21-4 run for the hosts over the next 7½ minutes.
 
Carter Duwa's (Pleasant Valley HS, Bettendorf, Iowa) conventional field goal tied it at 35-all with 19 minutes to play. He followed with a trey, as did Johnson, Matt Hanushewsky (Hersey HS, Arlington Height, Ill.) and Daniel Carr (Regis Jesuit HS, Highlands Ranch, Colo.), as Augustana extended its lead to double digits (47-37). Nate Ortiz (St. Charles East HS, St. Charles, Ill.) later dropped in the hosts' sixth triple in as many second-half tries off an inbounds play and then Duwa got behind the North Park defense for a layup that gave Augustana its biggest lead of the game at 56-39 with 12:12 left.
 
North Park responded with a 10-0 run over the next two minutes, but a pair of Carr layups appeared to put Schafer's bunch back in control with a 63-51 edge and 7½ minutes to play. The guests kept coming however. At the five-minute mark Osbourne missed a free throw that could've finished off a three-point and pulled NPU within a point. North Park trimmed the deficit to two on three more occasions in the final 2½ minutes, but Augustana had an answer. First, when Carr scored off a beautiful Johnson feed at 1:11, and again when Johnson drove and threw in a contested layup at 0:35.
 
After Jordan Boyd's two free throws with 25 seconds left pulled NPU to within 73-71, North Park forced an Augustana turnover to give itself a chance to tie. However, Boyd was called for an illegal screen near halfcourt and Duwa was fouled on the ensuing inbounds play with 5.1 seconds remaining. Duwa hit his first free throw, but missed the second, with Osbourne grabbing the rebound and rushing it up court. The freshman pulled up from 27 feet on the left wing, but his potential game-tying shot was off the mark as the buzzer sounded.
 
Duwa nailed five of six three-point attempts on his way to 17 first-half points, but a dozen Augustana turnovers helped North Park take a 33-30 advantage to intermission.
 
Duwa finished with a game-high 25 points, making nine of 15 field goal attempts, including six of eight from beyond the arc. Johnson had 11 of his 14 points after halftime and finished four of six from long range. Carr added 10 points—all in the second half—and a game-high 11 rebounds and Justin Bottorff (Quincy Notre Dame HS, Quincy, Ill.) contributed seven points, eight rebounds and game highs of five assists and two blocked shots. Jordan Boyd led North Park with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Augustana shot .509 (28-55) from the floor, .565 (13-23) from three-point range and .455 (5-11) from the free throw line, including respective marks of .593 and .700 from the field and long range in the second half. North Park finished 26 of 61 (.426) from the field, four of 10 (.400) from deep and 15 of 19 (.789) at the foul line. The visitors had a 40-31 rebound advantage and committed 16 turnovers to Augustana's 18.
 
Schafer's crew is scheduled to be back at Carver Center on Tuesday, February 23, hosting Elmhurst for a 7:00 p.m. contest.