Victoria Larson / Winonan

The No. 9 Winona State University women’s basketball team clinched its first NSIC regular season championship in program history on Saturday with a 73-60 win over Concordia-St. Paul University.

But before the Warriors could cut down the nets on Saturday, they had to face Minnesota State University–Mankato on Friday in Winona.

At the end of the first quarter, senior point guard Connor Nagle had hit three 3-pointers to lead Winona State to a 17-14 lead. She added four more to tie her career-high for 3-pointers made in game with seven. She had 23 points going into the half, giving the Warriors a 40-29 advantage.

Coming out of halftime, sophomore forward Hannah McGlone led the way for the Warriors. She recorded a quick six points to go along with four rebounds right away in the second half, totaling 12 points and 9 rebounds with 15 minutes still to play.

Despite the play of McGlone, the Mavericks closed in at the end of the third quarter, down 50-47.

In the fourth quarter, Nagle hit her eighth 3-pointer, setting a new career-high. She became the third player in Winona State women’s basketball history to hit eight 3-pointers in a game. Becca Friestleben and now assistant coach Ana Wurtz also sank eight 3-pointers in 2013 and 2010, respectively. It’s one shy of the program record of nine, set by Friestleben in 2013.

The Mavericks pulled to within two, 63-61, with 36 seconds left in the game but Winona State sank six free throws for the 69-61 victory.

Nagle finished with a game-high 26 points, four rebounds, an assist and a block. McGlone added 16 points and 13 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. Senior guard Alexis Foley tallied 14 points, four assists and two steals.

On Saturday, the Warriors took on the Golden Bears, who came in with a 12-13 record.

The Bears had an 8-3 lead early but 3-pointers by Foley and Nagle put the Warriors ahead as they went on a 16-0 run to take a 32-13 lead.

Nagle had 11 points at the half, on the strength of three 3’s. Foley had nine points while Roelofs and Timmerman scored six and five points respectively.

Nagle ended with 19 points, four assists and seven rebounds. Roelofs hit 5-of-6 threes and finished with 18 points, three assists and four rebounds. Foley hit 3-of-5 threes, adding 16 points, five assists and four rebounds.

Roelofs said the versatility of their players makes the team hard to stop.

“Teams have such a hard time guarding us, because if you try to stop one person, we have four other weapons on the court who can do so many different things and score in so many different ways,” Roelofs continued. “It’s just really fun to be a part of, there is just so many different weapons on the court at the same time.”

Timmerman broke two Winona State block records in Saturday’s win. She had 11 blocks, breaking the previous record of eight. She also broke the Warrior single-season block record with 83, which was previously held by Amanda Brown (72) in the 1999-2000 season. Timmerman was one point shy of the triple-double, finishing with nine points, 11 rebounds and 11 blocks.

Winona State head coach Scott Ballard said the hard work the team put in the season has paid off.

“There’s a lot of satisfaction that comes with the long preseason and running the hills and all the workouts and all the extra time they put in the offseason,” Ballard said. “It’s so satisfying to see them get rewarded with achieving one of their goals.”

Setting a new program record for wins in a season, topping a 24-7 record by the 2008-2009 team, the Winona State women improved to 25-2 with an 18-2 record in NSIC play.

“It’s another great accomplishment,” Nagle said. “But we’re going to be keeping our nose to the grindstone. We still have a lot of work to do.”

Winona State (25-2, 18-2 NSIC) travels to Wayne State College and Augustana University to wrap up the regular season before coming back to host a first round NSIC Tournament game Wednesday, Feb. 24 in Winona.