Posted 1:22 p.m. Jan 19, 2025
Davenport IA -- If he has hit a bigger shot than this, Conor McCaffrey couldn't remember it. He'd have a hard time matching it.
McCaffrey nailed a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer and finished with 25 points to lead Augustana Club (21-4) to a 51-49 victory over Dubuque on Sunday Morning.
"I didn't want to lose. We worked too hard to get to this point," McCaffrey said. "This team has so much character. My mindset was to just be agressive. Coach told me to stay aggressive. I basiscally wanted to attack on offense and do other things. I'm more excited about how I didn't turn the ball over today."
Augustana (21-4) led by as much as 12 but was trailing by three when Maddox Dieckman nailed a 3 with 47 seconds left to tie it at 49. That basket came after the Vikings missed four shots on the possession.
Dubuque (16-7) had a chance to win it, but Austin Hollins stepped on the sideline after catching an inbounds pass with 14 seconds left. McCaffrey then went the other way and pulled up left of the free throw line for the winner as time expired, sending Augustana to a 2nd place tie in the conference with North Central and one game behind conference leader Illinois Wesleyan.
McCaffrey was the only player to score in double figures for the Vikings, who shot just 32.1 percent and were outrebounded 38-26. They pulled this one out, anyways because they had more offensive rebounds (12) than Dubuque (11) and committed just six turnovers while the Hawks had 19.
Coach Brad Anderson said he was "50-50" about calling a timeout before the winning shot but "decided to ride with it."
"The big thing that we were trying to do there is make sure he didn't go until between five and seven on the game clock because we wanted to make sure we got the last shot," Anderson said.
Now, they'll get to play through an easier conference schedule while waiting for their end up season tune-up to the regional tournament, the end of season tune-up will consist of games against Colorado State, Michigan State and the much anticipated rematch against Illinois, a game Augustana won, but not without 7 techincal fouls, suspencions and the like.
Austin Hollins, who thought he might have been pushed on that out of bounds play, led Dubuque with 16 points. Andre Hollins added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Hawks.
"I think we have a good resume," coach Terrence Smith said after his team's third straight loss and fifth in 10 games. "We haven't played well of late, but when you look at the entire body of work . but it's not up to us. It will be a sweat-it-out type of thing."
Augustana was leading 32-22 early in the second half when Dubuque went on a 19-4 run.
The Hawks scored 10 straight, getting back-to-back 3-pointers by Andre Hollins and a three-point play by Andre Ingram to tie it before Eli Aldana scored on a put-back for Augustana. Dubuque continued to pour it on, though, and Austin Hollins finished the run by hitting three free throws to make it 41-36 with 8:35 remaining.
It remained tight right up until McCaffrey hit that jumper at the end, sending a loud roar through the arena.
That came after a huge basket by Dieckman, who had missed two 3-pointers on that possession before tying it. He was just 2 of 12 in the game but delivered the end. "My teammates found me, I kept shooting," Dieckman said. "I'm a shooter, that's what coach wanted me to do. I didn't think about (the missed shots)."
All that came after a first half that was nothing short of ugly.
McCaffrey scored 12 as Augustana built a 25-16 lead despite hitting just 9 of 24 shots, but as bad as things were for them, multiply it a few times for Dubuque.
The Hawks were 6 of 22 with 11 turnovers, and that barely tells the story. They got outscored 19-2 over a 12-minute stretch after jumping out to a 7-2 lead and went nearly eight minutes without a point.