DUBUQUE, Iowa -- The Augustana Vikings men's basketball team was defeated on the road on Wednesday, falling to the Dubuque Spartans on the road by a final score of 65-59.

For the first half of the opening frame, the two teams played a back-and-forth contest that led to a one-point score in favor of the Vikings at 15-14. From there, the Vikings broke away from the close battle, pushing their lead to double digits at 25-15 thanks to a 10-1 run. Augie cushioned their advantage to as many as 11 before taking a 33-24 score into the break. The Vikings hits six threes on 14 attempts in the opening 20 minutes while holding Dubuque to just 30 percent from the floor and 20 percent from behind the arc.

The Spartans struck first in the second half, but Augustana responded with three straight baskets, two from Daniel Carr, to secure their largest differential of the game of 13. The two teams traded baskets for a short while and after 10 minutes of play in the half, the Vikings still held onto a double-digit lead at 46-35. Eight straight points from the home team cut the margin to three points over the span of the next three minutes, followed by Dubuque's first lead of the second half at the 5:04 mark. Consecutive free throws from Evan Ambrose notched the lead right back for Augustana, but a made three-pointer from Dubuque gave the Spartans put them ahead for good as they never trailed again after that. The Vikings cut it to a single possession with 30 seconds left after trailing by seven, but five straight free throws kept Augie out of striking distance. 

After an efficient opening half of shooting, the Vikings hit just one three-pointer in the second half and shot 38 percent in the final 20 minutes. The Spartans shot at a 52 percent clip in the second half to help aid their comeback effort.

Carr led the Vikings in scoring with 22 points to go with his 12 rebounds, his sixth double-double of the year. Tyler Knuth also had double figures, tallying 13 points on 5-9 shooting off the bench. Nine different Vikings tallied at least two points on the night. 

With the loss, Augustana drops to 2-6 on the season. The team will step back into CCIW action on Saturday, December 10 when they visit the North Park Vikings on the road. Start time is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. from Chicago.