SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Augustana men’s basketball remains on the road for two more contests as part of the East/West Challenge. The 2023 iteration of the event takes place in Rapid City, South Dakota, and is hosted by South Dakota Mines.
 
Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app, presented by The Original Pancake House. The app can be downloaded in the App Store or Google Play. 
 
About the Yellow Jackets
A back-to-back Final Four qualifier, Black Hills State opened 2023-24 with a 1-1 record. The Yellow Jackets fell 72-53 in their season opener against Oklahoma Christian and followed with an overtime win over Arkansas Fort Smith.
 
A different looking team of sorts, Black Hills State is trying to find its identity after losing a two-time All-America honoree.
 
Matthew Ragsdale led BHSU with 16.5 points over the two games while shooting 40.7 percent from the field. He was just 3-of-13 from 3-point land. John Shanklin led the way on the rebound stats sheet with 4.5 rebounds per game.
 
About the Hardrockers
South Dakota Mines opened the season with an identical 1-1 record after a narrow, 54-49, loss to Texas A&M – Kingsville. The victory was an 84-66 win over Texas A&M – International.
 
Alejandro Rama led a quartet of Hardrockers in double-digit scoring at 19.5 points per game. He shoots at a near 50-percent clip while also leading the team with 8.5 rebounds per outing. Joining him in double-digit scoring are Cameron Cohn (11.5), Brannagh Walsh (11.0) and Keegen Smith (10.0).
 
About the Vikings
Much like its opponents, Augustana is 1-1 on the year with a loss to Missouri Western (76-72) and victory over Southeastern Oklahoma State (95-81).
 
Isaac Fink and Jadan Graves each had outstanding weekends averaging 21.0 and 20.5 points per game respectively. Graves made 52 percent of his shot attempts including going 12-of-22 from 3-point land. Brady Helgren also had a strong showing with 11.5 points and a team-best 8.0 rebounds per game.
 
The Vikings continued their trend of playing strong on neutral courts over the past decade with the win over Southeastern Oklahoma State. AU now holds a 29-9 record in neutral-site contests since 2014-15.
 
One Last Thing
In the five years since the inception of the East/West Challenge, Augustana holds the record for assists in a game. That was last season against South Dakota Mines with AU dished out 22 assts with five each from Jadan Graves and Isaac Fink.
 

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