Winona State University's Newspaper since 1919

The Winonan

Winona State University's Newspaper since 1919

The Winonan

Winona State University's Newspaper since 1919

The Winonan

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Men’s basketball drops pair of weekend games

Dillon Hogan/ Winonan

Coming off of four consecutive home wins, the Winona State men’s basketball team found themselves on the wrong side of a two-game sweep as they hit the road to face off against Augustana on Friday and Wayne State on Saturday.

In Sioux Falls, S.D. facing No. 6 Augustana, the Warriors endured a flurry of three pointers used to stifle any attempt at a close game and fell 97-68 to the Vikings.

Winona State took an early lead and held it until Augustana took it over 14-12 with 14 minutes left in the first half. This is a lead they would never give up, as they continued to increase their advantage. With less than eight minutes left the Vikings led 29-15, and by halftime they led the Warriors by 21 points, 51-30.

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The Warriors played a much closer second half, but the deficit from the first half proved too much to overcome. The 97-68 score would go down as the biggest margin of loss for the Warriors this season and also the most points that the team has given up yet this year.

Augustana hit a season-high of 17 three-pointers on 19 attempts against the Warriors’ 8-of-23.

Isaiah Gray led Winona State with 13 points as a redshirt freshman. Tim Wagner set a season-high 12 points with four three-pointers. Riley Bambenek posted a team-high of seven rebounds and five assists.

Following the loss to Augustana the Warriors moved to 9-8 on the season with a 6-7 record in the NSIC. The Warriors traveled to Wayne, Neb. to take on Wayne State the following day to round out the pair of weekend games.

In a much closer affair than the game against Augustana, the match against Wayne State would come down to the final minutes of play. However, the result would be the same as the Warriors dropped their second road game 81-79.

The Warrior offense shot 50 percent from the field against the Wildcats, an improvement from their 36 percent performance against Augustana.

The Wildcats held the lead by a constant three to five point advantage over the Warriors. With less than two minutes to play in the first period, the Warriors found themselves trailing by four, but the Wildcats pulled ahead to lead by ten points going into halftime, 41-31.

Wayne State opened the second half with a run that pulled them ahead 17 points, leading the Warriors 53-36 with more than 15 minutes left to play.

Winona State quickly recovered as Tim Wagner and Isaiah Gray displayed back-to-back layups to cut the Warrior deficit to six points, 55-49. Wayne State maintained a steady increase and with less than five minutes left of play they built their lead back up to 13 points.

With 1:30 left, the Warriors were down three points, thanks to made free throws by Bambenek, Wagner and Conrad Masberg, respectively. A final three pointer from Masberg closed the gap to two points with four seconds remaining. That is as close as the game would get as the Warriors came up short 81-79.

Masberg scored a career-high 21 points, went 5-of-5 on free throws and played a career-high 34 minutes against the Wildcats as Mark Blacklock posted the first double-double of the Warrior season with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Following the two losses on the weekend the Warriors are now 9-9 overall for the year with a 6-8 record in the NSIC. They return to play in Winona in a pair of weekend games against Bemidji State at 8 p.m. Friday and Minnesota Crookston at 6 p.m. Saturday.

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