The Winona State University women’s basketball team took on two away games this past weekend as they played against Minot State University and University of Saint Mary, both ending in losses.

On the first day, Friday, Jan. 20, the women’s team took on Minot State with the score ending 66-58.

The game was close from every corner, they ended the first half 27-27. But Winona State took the lead in the third quarter, but soon again they were tied at 51-51. Then Minot State took charge to play a 9-2 in the last few minutes giving Winona State their third-straight loss.

As a team, they all contributed the best they could. On offense, Caitlin Riley scored 11 points and Lauren Fech added her own 10 points. As the rest of the bench racked up 29 points altogether.

“We work as a team to do everything we can knowing we have each other’s backs,” Lauren Fech said.

The defense was put up but had multiple turnovers against the Beavers. Minot State held the rebounding efforts 39-33.

Minot State player, Kennedy Harris was able to get up 20 points against our warriors. As four others of her teammates got six rebounds each for their home team.

Our women’s team was 24-59 (40.7%) from the floor and hit 8-22 (36.4%) three pointers. In addition, our girls were able to gain five free throws in the game.

The following day, Winona State came back to play against University of Mary at the McDowell Activity Center.

It was a late start for both teams as two minutes passed with no scoring until Mary put up six points on the board for the game.

Winona State had a slow start as they did not score in the first quarter until there was four minutes and 30 seconds left on the clock. Alex Dornfeld’s layup was the first score in the game for the Warriors, leaving the first quarter 13-2.

UMary continued with their dominating offense as they created more of a lead to a 26-11 advantage at halftime.

However, Winona State came back with their own offense power in the third quarter as they dropped four three pointers on nine attempts and scored 29 points against the Marauders who had scored 24 points.

“We come out every game knowing what we can do and just go on the court to lay it all out. Everything just falls in place,” Fech said.

In the end, UMary finished the game with a 25-11 fourth quarter to win 75-49.

Our offensive point leaders were Alex Dornfeld and Lauren Fech both able to put up eight points each. Along with five other Warriors who came out with at least one assist.

The Warriors shot 0.339 (20-59) from shooting range and 0.174 (4-23) from deep while UMary went 0.422 (27-64) from the field and 0.259 (7-27) beyond the arc.

Next game, Winona State (9-11, 3-11 NSIC) will host Northern State and MSU Moorehead on Friday, Jan. 27 and Saturday, Jan. 28 at the McCown Gymnasium, home of the WNB Financial Court.