WINONA, Minn. –
Tara Roelofs scored a game-high 22 points as the Winona State women's basketball team stepped up in a big way, earning a 71-61 win over Concordia-St. Paul Friday night in front of 882 in McCown Gym.
Sophomore
Emily Wirth – making her first career start – gave the Warriors a quick early spark with a 3-pointer to get the scoring started. A few minutes later
Alexis Foley hit a 3-point shot to put WSU up 8-4 with 15:32 to play.
Caitie Zepczyk – also getting her first start of the season – hit a layup to give WSU a 21-13 lead and its largest lead of the half, but the Golden Bears battled back and a pair of Lauren Shifflet free throws brought the game to a 27-27 tie at halftime.
Roelofs had eight points and Wirth scored seven in the first half on 3-of-6 shooting each. CU was slightly better from the field, making 38 percent (11-of-29) of their shots while WSU hit 36 percent (10-of-28).
WSU came out on a 7-2 run to open the second half to take a 34-29 lead on another Zepczyk layup, but by the 13:38 mark the Golden Bears had tied it at 38-38 and a 7-0 CU run eventually made it 42-38 with 11:30 left. The Warriors from that point would go on a 23-10 run – hitting four of five 3-pointers in that span – to open up a 61-52 lead and wouldn't look back. The lead reached double digits for the first time at 65-55 on a Roelofs free throw with 45 seconds left and would keep that lead until the final score of 71-61.
Wirth made her first start count, scoring a career-high 15 points along with a team-high four assists and four rebounds to provide a major spark to the Warriors' post play.
Kayla Timmerman and
Connor Nagle each just missed double-doubles, finishing with eight points, 10 rebounds and 10 points, eight rebounds, respectively.
The Warriors took good care of the basketball, committing just eight turnovers and finished the game shooting 39 percent while the Golden Bears shot 37 percent.
Winona State (7-1, 3-1 NSIC) is back inside McCown Gym Saturday for a 4 p.m. tipoff against Minnesota State.
