WINONA, Minn. – Isaiah Gray scored a game-high 28 points and Kyle Bauman recorded a career-high 18 points as the duo led the Winona State men's basketball team to a 75-68 victory over Bemidji State Friday night in front of 1,316 fans in McCown Gymnasium.

Gray made a career high 10 of his 15 shots from the field and was a clutch 6-of-6 from the charity stripe in the game. His 28 points were one shy of his career high of 29, which he set in the conference opener against Upper Iowa. Bauman, meanwhile, scored his career high 18 points while going 7-of-13 from the field.

Gray opened the scoring for the Warriors with a 3-pointer to give the Warriors a quick 3-0 lead. Bauman then converted a 3-point play to put WSU up 6-0. By the time Mark Blacklock hit a 3-pointer and Isaiah Gray hit a second triple, the Warriors had a 14-7 lead with 13:07 to play.

Bauman later threw down a dunk to put WSU up 24-18 to start a 9-0 run that he bookended with a lay-in to extend the WSU advantage to 31-18. Tim Wagner later hit a three – one of two in the half – and Bauman added another layup to give him 13 points in the half before the Warriors settled for a 42-28 halftime lead.

Bemidji State cut the 14-point halftime lead down to eight less than four minutes into the second half when Kaylor Zimmerman hit a 3-pointer to make it 46-38. After a bit of a dry spell from the Warriors, Blacklock answered with a 3-pointer as well to make it 52-43 with 12:43 left. Less than two minutes later, a Brock Lutes triple cut the WSU lead to just six at 54-49 and he would get it down to as little as four at 57-53 with a free throw with under eight and a half minutes to play.

Still clinging to a four-point lead with under five minutes left, Tim Wagner scored on a nifty layup to make it 63-57, but the pesky Beavers would not go away quietly. BSU's Cody Risseeuw hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the Warrior lead to just two at 65-63 with 2:20 to play. The Beavers then pulled even on a Lutes jumper at the 1:36 mark, but they would never be able to complete the comeback as Gray would take over for the Warriors.

After a pair of missed Bemidji State free throws, Gray hit a pretty turnaround jumper to move ahead 67-65, then hit six straight free throws to ice the game for the Warriors and earn a 75-68 win.

Gray and Bauman were just two of four Warriors to finish in double figures. Blacklock and Wagner each added 10 points, while Blacklock had a team-high four assists while Wagner added three. Bauman also had three assists to go with four blocks, while Isaiah Gray pulled down a team-high six rebounds.

The Warriors took good care of the basketball, committing just six turnovers while BSU finished with nine. WSU shot 45.8 percent (27-of-59) while BSU made 40.7 percent of its shots (24-of-59).

Winona State (10-9, 7-8 NSIC) looks to pull back to .500 in NSIC play when it hosts Minnesota Crookston at 6 p.m. Saturday in McCown Gym.