What does it take for a team to continue achieving high levels of success? After a tumultuous beginning of the season Winona State University, starting the season off 4-12, they started to pick up their play, winning four of their last five games before their penultimate weekend in McCown Gymnasium. With a chance to improve their odds to reach the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) tournament, they had a pair of dates against Wayne State College and Augustana University over the weekend. Both teams are fighting for byes in the conference playoffs. How would the purple and white defend their home floor?
Wildcats entered Winona County with a strong resume, 14-8 overall with ten conference wins to show. The Warriors traveled to Wayne earlier in the season, losing that contest 65-64 after Wildcat forward Matt Noll hit a clutch free throw with six seconds left to end the game in Rice Auditorium. To start their second action, both teams matriculated their offense around getting looks underneath the basket. This action highlighted by JJ Ferrin, Wayne State guard, getting a couple of back cuts for layups against the Warrior defense. Gavin Hurley, third-year player for Winona State, consistently caught the Wildcats off-guard with his off-ball moment to find shots at the charity stripe. Kai Smith drained a triple with eight seconds left to close the first half, with the Wildcats leading 28-26.
After Winona State shot a measly 27 percent from the field, they picked up the half-court offense in a big way. Tyler Mason, who got all ten of his points in the second half, drove right and hit a pair of jumpers to keep Wayne State’s defense on a swivel. He was only a portion of the Warrior scoring attack. As a team, they shot a palatable 45 percent in the second half while limiting the Wildcats to 36. Free throws from Mason and first-year guard Aidan Bardic closed out Wayne State 60-57. Hurley picked up a team-high 19 points and 12 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
If Wayne State was the initial test, then Augustana became the final exam. The Vikings entered the contest second in the NSIC with 13 conference wins, emphasized by a seven-game win streak compared to the Warriors four. If Winona State wanted this one, they had to slow down a top scoring offense in the conference. The Warriors’ offensive struggles continued in the first half. As a team, they shot 31 percent from the field and 25 percent from three, but their defense continued to fight. They held the Vikings to 23 percent from beyond the arc only trailing by six at the half.
Augustana pulled ahead with a swift eight-to-nothing run before the first time out of the floor. Winona State forward Ryan Heise stopped the run with a two-handed flush on the right side. Every time the Warriors looked to cut the lead, Caden Hinker, who closed the game with 17 points on 13 shots, found a response each time. A Hurley fastbreak layup under two-minutes gave the Warriors a six-point deficit. Yet, Tyler Borowski and Mason’s threes in the weighing seconds could not give Winona State a close enough game. The Vikings edged out the Warriors 62-54. Heise lead the team with 16 points and 9 rebounds. With two weeks of conference play left, Winona State sits at 9-14 with a 8-10 conference record. They will have a road trip to Marshall and Sioux Falls this weekend, as they look to move up the NSIC ranks.
