Box Score MINOT, N.D. – Minot State University couldn't fully recover from an early deficit as Augustana College held off Minot State for an 80-67 win over the Beavers in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men's basketball Saturday at the Minot State Dome.

The Beavers (6-6 overall, 2-6 NSIC) was held scoreless for the first six minutes of the contest, spotting the Vikings (9-5, 6-2) a 14-0 lead.

"We're not playing teams you can get away with playing solid for 35 or less minutes and expect to win," said MISU head coach Matt Murken. "That's the growing pains our program is going through right now. Our guys need to take away that we can't be great or good just for glimpses, we need to play more consistently."

While playing catch-up the entire night, the Beavers did make a significant run in the second half to cut the Augie lead to just eight with 3:59 to play on a 3-pointer by Samuel Johnson (Sr., F, Las Vegas, Nev.).

MISU had a couple chances to get a stop and pull even closer as the Beavers had two possessions with the Vikings ahead by eight, but missed a jumper and had a turnover on an offensive foul. During the two ensuing Augie possessions, the Vikings pulled down three offensive boards to extend possessions to wind down the clock from 3:59 on the Johnson 3-pointer all the way to 1:25 when Augustana's Yuriy Malashenko iced the game with a layup.

"We let one of their main scorers get in his sweet-spot early on but for the most part our team got outrebounded," said MISU guard E.J. Williams (Sr., Raleigh, N.C.). "We were getting good shots and touches in the paint, but we just couldn't finish at the rim to start the game."

The Beavers rebounded from a terrible shooting start to hit 40.7 percent in the game, knocking down 53.9 percent in the second half. MISU stayed in the game with solid 3-poin shooting, hitting 11 of 21 triples, including three each from Williams, Johnson and Dominique McDonald (So., G, Raleigh, N.C.).

"The thing that is frustrating to me, my staff and our players is that we played well in stretches both of the games this weekend and we've shown stretches of high-caliber basketball," said Murken. "But overall, we fought much harder and better tonight. We helped each other out to get each other easy shots so there is a lot of good to take out of it."

The Vikings' Casey Schilling was solid in the win, hitting for 27 points and ending with eight rebounds and four assists. Malashenko was a beast on the board with 16 total to go with 13 points for Augie.

Minot State had four players in double figures, paced by Williams' 17. Johnson scored 15 points and added six rebounds, while McDonald and Chris East (Sr., F, Toronto, Ontario) each finished with 11 points. East pulled down a team-high nine rebounds and McDonald dished out six assists for the Beavers.

MISU will look to rebound from a pair of losses on its longest road trip of the season, traveling to Upper Iowa Friday and Winona State Saturday in NSIC play.