WINONA, Minn. – The Winona State men's basketball team took an early lead and never looked back, cruising to a 76-52 victory over Minnesota Crookston Saturday evening in front of a season-high 1,776 spectators in McCown Gymnasium.
Riley Bambenek bounced back from only the second scoreless game of his career Friday night with a game-high 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting and a perfect 2-of-2 from long range. In all, four Warriors reached double figures as Isaiah Gray scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting, Tim Wagner added 12 on 4-of-9 shooting and Corey Jeffs contributed 10 points while making four of his seven shots.
Every Warrior but one that saw the floor scored at least three points as the team shot 57 percent from the field (29-of-51) while holding the Golden Eagles to just 38 percent.
UMC's John Hughes scored the game's first points on a 3-pointer to give the Golden Eagles a 3-0 lead, but it would turn out to be the only lead Minnesota Crookston would enjoy. Conrad Masberg got the Warriors on the board with a 3-point play to tie it up at 3-3 and a Gray layup gave WSU a 5-3 advantage. Another 3-pointer from the Golden Eagles would tie it up at 9-9, but a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws from Gray quickly moved the lead to 14-9 and WSU would lead the rest of the way.
UMC managed to keep the game a relatively tight affair throughout most of the first half, as a Bambenek 3-pointer with 5:43 to play in the half gave WSU just a five-point lead and at the 3:55 mark WSU still had just a 25-20 advantage. That's when things went south for the Golden Eagles, as back-to-back jumpers from Bambenek, a 3-point play from Kyle Bauman, and back-to-back 3-pointers from Jeffs closed the half with a 13-0 run to take a 38-20 lead into the break.
The run to end the first half would stretch to as much as 17 after the first minute of the second half with a layup from Gray and a jumper from Bauman to stretch the lead to 42-20. By the 14:11 mark, Bambenek had hit another 3-pointer following back-to-back triples from Mark Blacklock to open up what would be the largest lead of the game at 53-25.
The hot 3-point shooting would continue as Wagner got a friendly bounce to fall through – one of his three in the game – at the midway point of the half to put WSU up 61-35 as WSU held its 20-plus point lead for the remainder of the game before settling for the 76-52 final.
The Warriors shot a fantastic 10-of-16 from 3-point range for the game as four different Warriors hit multiple shots from beyond the arc. UMC finished 6-of-19 from long distance as no Golden Eagle scored more than 10 points in the game.
Winona State (11-9, 8-8 NSIC) moves its home record to 11-2 on the season and will set out in search of its first road victories next weekend when it takes on St. Cloud State Friday and Minnesota Duluth on Saturday.
