After a long regular season filled with losses, the Winona State University women’s basketball team managed to end the regular season with two highly contested battles at home this weekend.

The women’s 71-67 victory against Augustana University led to the end of a 10-game losing streak for the team, but the second game of the weekend ended in a 60-59 loss against Wayne State College.

The weekend at home started off on Friday, Feb. 16 with a game against the tenth-ranked Augustana, a team that had beaten Winona by 20 points four weeks earlier. However, the Warriors were keen on not letting that happen again this time around. The team held close and ended the first quarter down by one. First-year Allie Pickrain kept the team on track by completing four of her five shots in the first, with all being three-pointers.

The momentum seemed to be going in the wrong direction as Augustana went on to end the second period, giving themselves a seven-point lead entering halftime. However, Winona fought back in the third. After they fell behind by 11 points, they fought back to minimize the damage down to three heading into the final period.

Everything that the Warriors needed to go their way in the fourth quarter, did. The team took the lead with just over three minutes to go, lost it, tied it back up. They regained it with under a minute left, just for Augustana to tie it back up moments later. Then sophomore Gabie Doud converted a three-point play to give Winona a three-point edge with four seconds remaining.

After the defense held the Vikings to just one on the other end, Doud drained another two free throw shots to seal the upset for the team with a final of 71-67.

The team did not have much time to celebrate the win. The next night Wayne State College came to town, a team that held the Warriors to a season-low 37 points in a game four weeks earlier. This particular game was scored much closer than their previous encounter, so close that first half ended in a tie, with each team putting up 28 points on the board.

The second half was similar, as neither team could run away with the game. The final quarter proved to be a wild one, as the lead was exchanged seven times in the final seven minutes. The two teams battled hard all the way to the final second of the game, where Wayne State nailed a buzzer-beater jumper to defeat Winona, 60-59.

The night celebrated the team’s lone senior, Hannah McGlone, who put together another impressive performance in the final regular season game of the year, shooting seven for 13 and coming up with four assists.

Next week marks the beginning of the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament, where Winona will begin the tournament with a return to Minot State University on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. The Warriors will look for a better result than their last game with the Beavers, where they lost 50 to 76.