Victoria Larson / Winonan

The No. 10 Winona State University women’s basketball team proved on Friday and Saturday the importance of defense in the NSIC conference. Shooting just 35.5 percent Friday against St. Cloud State University and 35.7 percent Saturday against the University of Minnesota-Duluth put a lot of pressure on the Warriors and their defensive end.

Winona State head coach Scott Ballard said he was happy about the team’s defensive effort.

“I’m proud of how we keep playing every possession on defense,” Ballard said. “I wish people would talk more about our defense than they do how many threes we hit, how many points we score.”

Defense was the main theme throughout the weekend as the Warriors struggled to score consistently. Other than senior point guard Connor Nagle’s high shooting percentage, the Warriors had trouble scoring, especially from beyond the arc.

St. Cloud State came into McCown Gymnasium Friday with an 11-6 record in the NSIC, looking to take down the current leaders atop the conference in Winona State.

Nagle scored six of the first eight points for the Warriors, giving them an early 8-4 advantage and leading to a 15-12 at the end of the first quarter. Nagle finished the quarter with eight points, three rebounds and two assists.

The Huskies responded in the second quarter, building a 24-18 lead before the Warriors went on an 8-0 run to take a two-point lead. St. Cloud State hit a jumper prior to the halftime buzzer, tying the score at 26 apiece.

Once again, St. Cloud State went ahead on a quick 7-0 run to start the third quarter to get the lead, but the Warriors answered with a 7-0 run of their own to tie it up again. With the combination of Nagle and junior center Kayla Timmerman, the Warriors built a five-point lead going into the final quarter of play.

With Nagle hitting her sixth three of the game midway through the fourth quarter, the Warriors would go on to win 62-51.

Winona State maintained control of the glass as they held a 47-35 rebounding advantage. Timmerman finished with 14 boards to go along with 16 points and two blocks.

“She has really taken the rebounding part of her game to another level,” assistant coach Ana Wurtz said. “Which is huge for us because that’s the one area that we were struggling with.”

Nagle finished with a game-high 20 points, five assists, three steals, while grabbing eight rebounds. Senior guard Alexis Foley added 14 points, four assists and five rebounds. Junior guard Tara Roelofs had 10 points while sophomore forward Hannah McGlone pulled down nine rebounds.

Ballard said he was proud of the team’s hustle on the defensive end.

“You can tell what kind of attitude a team has by the way they play defense.” Ballard said. “I’m proud of them for a lot of reasons, but I’m proud of how competitive they are when it comes to doing the dirty work – the defense, the rebounding. It’s hard to get people to buy into that because that’s not fun.”

The University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs came to town Saturday, coached by former Saint Mary’s Head Coach Mandy Pearson.

Five seconds into the contest, Nagle continued to hit deep shots with a quick three, and then she drilled a second shortly after. But the Bulldogs answered with a 7-0 run to grab the lead 10-8 with 4:39 remaining in the opening quarter. Winona State regained the lead to have a slight

16-14 lead at the end of the quarter.

Nagle hit another three in the second quarter and the Warriors took a 29-25 lead into halftime.

Winona State turned up the defense in the third quarter, only giving up six points while the offense was able to score 17. They were able to build a 20-point lead with 5:30 remaining in the fourth to end with a 57-46 victory.

Once again, defense was pivotal as they held the Bulldogs to 24.6 percent shooting.

“[Duluth] scored 84 points [Friday]. We held them to 46 tonight,” Ballard said after the game. “The defense is saving us from the other team going on big runs and that’s important. Because of that, who knows what’s going to happen down the road. But we believe in our defense and each other.”

Connor Nagle has drilled 19 3-pointers in the last three contests. Coach Wurtz credits her work ethic for this recent success.

“When you get shooters as good as her, it just becomes a mental game. She puts in the reps every single day,” Wurtz said. “She’s always got the green light when someone works as hard as her, constantly in the gym getting up shots. I’ve seen the girl make 185 out of 200 threes on a day. So am I surprised when she goes out and has these games? No, not at all.”

Nagle understands the mental game behind being a shooter and credits her teammates for putting her in this position to be successful.

“I think before I would get into to the mental game and I would worry too much about my shot to where now if I get it and I’m open, its going up,” Nagle said. “You need a good pass and they are definitely getting me the ball where I need it.”

Timmerman was able to do a lot of the work Coach Ballard expects as she had back-to-back double-doubles to go along with eight total blocks. She understands the work she needs to do to help her teammates on the court and put the Warriors in a position to win.

“We have four other threats on the court,” Timmerman said. “It’s always fun to screen for Connor because she always knows how to hit everybody and we are able to read each other.”

Nagle said when her teammates around her are getting baskets it ultimately helps her game as well.

“It’s really a domino effect, if ‘Timm’ starts going off, then my person leaves me and she can get me the ball and I can go off,” Nagle said.

Nagle added she would continue to keep playing her style of basketball.

“I’m going to keep looking for my shot,” Nagle said. “I mean, I might have to start taking a little more twos, but we’ll cross that road when we get there”

Winona State (23-2 overall, 16-2 NSIC) cannot get lower than second in conference and with wins this weekend against Minnesota State University Mankato and Concordia-St. Paul, they can clinch just their second NSIC conference title in program history.