SIOUX FALLS, SD – While balanced play helped Jamestown Jimmies Men’s Basketball to another win, the women again rallied after a big deficit, then fell short.
Jamestown defeated Augustana 87-77 in the men’s half of an NSIC basketball doubleheader Friday at the Elmen Center before the Viking women held off the Jimmies 71-65.
Men: Jamestown 87, Augustana 77
Augustana emphasized defending hard on Anthony Walters and Owen Hektner. Jamestown’s response was balanced scoring and 41 bench points in their sixth win in the last seven games.
Jamestown (8-7, 6-3 NSIC) moved into a tie with Minnesota Duluth for the NSIC South lead.
Ford Okehi (14) and Aiden Johnson (11) combined for 25 of the bench points for UJ. Okehi also had five rebounds and three assists. Johnson, a freshman, knocked down three three-pointers in registering a career high.
Cole Glasgow had a second straight solid offensive game, scoring 13. Walters, limited to nine shots, made five, including two three-pointers, and scored 12. Hektner had just two shots in the entire game, both three-pointers, and nailed them both, scoring six points with seven rebounds.
Jamestown had three different leads of seven points late in the first half before a tip-in by Bennett Fried with 36 seconds to play brought Augustana (8-6, 6-3) within 35-34. Walters then drained a three on the last Jimmie possession of the half for a 38-34 Jamestown halftime lead.
Hektner hit a three with 6:51 remaining for a 75-63 lead for the Jimmies before the Vikings made an 11-4 run to move within five points. But two Thomas Diew free throws and layups by Carson Woodford and Okehi made the Jimmies 85-75 leaders and sealed the game.
Brady Helgren scored 21 with seven rebounds and Sam Hensch added 16 for Augustana, who has now lost two seasons in a row to Jamestown after winning the first six meetings between the programs.
Women: Augustana 71, Jamestown 65
A furious rally made the finish interesting, but before that, an extended bad stretch cost Jamestown (4-9, 2-7), who lost their sixth straight, the program’s longest losing streak since end of the 2019-20 season.
UJ led Augustana (6-9, 3-6) 16-11 during the first quarter and 18-17 after one. Following that came a poor second quarter where Jamestown made only one of 12 field goals and was outscored 17-4.
Then in the first 4:49 of the third quarter, Jamestown was outscored 17-9 to have their largest deficit of the game, 51-33.
After being down 55-38 late in the third, the Jimmies battled back with a 17-6 run, culminated by a Jessika Lofstrom three-pointer with 6:20 left in the fourth quarter to cut the Augustana lead to 61-55.
Down 67-58, the Jimmies then had consecutive threes from Hali Savela and Emily Kurkowski to trail 67-64. Jamestown had two chances to come within a point, but Allie Berns missed a layup and Jessika Lofstrom missed a three-pointer and the Vikings held on.
Isabella Sanneh recorded her third double-double in a row and eighth of the season for Augustana with 18 points and 14 rebounds. She also had six assists.
Lofstrom scored 12 with eight rebounds for the Jimmies. Berns scored 11 and Haidyn Crockett tallied 10.
On Saturday, the Jimmies will meet Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska. Coverage of the doubleheader will begin at 3:00 PM on The Voice of the Jimmies, Jamestown 107.1.