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The Winona State Men’s basketball team played two amazing games at the McCown Gymnasium this weekend. The first game took place on Feb. 23 against Bemidji State and with a quick turnaround, they faced the University of Minnesota Crookston on Feb. 24.
Bemidji State went into the game with a 19-10 record while the Warriors had a 17-9 record. This was a relatively unsurprising match up as it was a very close game skill-wise.
Crookston went into their game with a 6-21 record. This was surprising as they showed skill when sinking their shots.
Starting off the first game of the week, the Beavers won the tip off. However, the Warriors quickly jumped into the game with great defense and managed to make the first point of the night, putting them in the lead.
Winona State was doing an excellent job staying strong regarding their blocking outs and rebounds. They had also perfected their moving screens, which in turn helped their game and helped them to achieve several of their points.
The Beavers managed to take the lead 10 minutes into the first half, but the Warriors were still battling hard and hoping for a quick comeback. The scores did not stray too far from one another, making for a very close and interesting game.
The Wtied the score with just five minutes left to go in the first half. However, this led to a back-and-forth point war between the two teams.
Conner Dillon tied the score while simultaneously facing a foul on him. He made his free-throw which put Winona State back in the lead.
The Beavers ended up making a last minute three-pointer which put them in the lead just in time for half time with a score of 41-39.
During most of the second half, the audience saw the two teams trade the lead on multiple occasions and the student section was living for it.
“I love it,” one Warrior fan said. “It’s just fun to come out with friends and support the team.”
The final score of the game against Bemidji was 87-81 marking another Warrior win.
In their second game on Saturday, the Eagles won the tip off and made the first point of the night.
They had been playing well to begin with and sinking nearly all their shots. The Warriors were having a hard time keeping up and playing defense against them. Only a few minutes into the game and the Warriors were already 14 points behind.
During the first half, Winona State was having a difficult time with their rebounds and defense overall. Ten minutes into the first half and they were managing a slow catch up with the score at 13-20.
After being so far behind in the beginning of the first half, the audience buzzed with excitement as the Warriors began to hit their shots more frequently. When asking Brock Voigt what caused this switch he said, “Coach sat us down and said we got to stop letting them shoot, they’re hitting everything, we had to get a hand up, and from there they started missing shots and we started going on our own.”
With just six minutes left in the first half, C. Dillion finally propelled Winona State into the lead with a sneaky slam dunk.
Coming back from the locker room, they continued to play strong and ended up putting themselves at a large advantage of 17 points. As they continued creeping closer to the end of the game, the Eagles had little chance at redemption as the Warriors maintained a wide 20-point lead.
The game ended 63-40 for another well-earned Warrior win.
The team plays again on Feb. 28 against Northern State University where they intend to lock in for another win on their home court.
