FAYETTE, Iowa – Junior Tara Roelofs scored a career-high 26 points to lead the No. 11 Winona State women's basketball team to an 83-58 win over Upper Iowa Saturday in the NSIC opener in Fayette, Iowa.
Roelofs made a career-most 10 field goals on an efficient 10-of-16 shooting while drilling 4-of-5 3-pointers. Roelofs' previous career high of 24 points came in the NSIC Tournament last season against MSU Moorhead.
Senior Connor Nagle was brilliant as a distributor, dishing out a career-best 10 assists while also picking up a game-high three steals.
Junior Kayla Timmerman also turned in a fine performance after sitting out the past two nonconference games, scoring 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting while adding a game-high nine rebounds and matched a career-high with six blocks for the fourth time in her Warrior career.
The first quarter was evenly matched, as WSU's 12-7 lead on a Roelofs jumper was the largest of the first 10 minutes, but but a 5-0 run from UIU gave the Peacocks its first lead at 13-12 and eventually a Blake Bergren 3-pointer gave Upper Iowa a two-point lead at 16-14 with under a minute to play, but Jenny Tuttle responded with a 3-pointer of her own to give WSU the lead back at 17-16 and a lead WSU never would relinquish.
Early in the second quarter, Roelofs hit the first of her four 3-pointers to cap off a 6-0 run and put WSU up 20-16 and the lead stretched to 27-19 with 4:48 to play thanks to a 13-3 run and nine points from Roelofs during the stretch. A jumper from Hannah McGlone gave WSU its first double-digit lead at 32-22 and WSU led 37-29 at the half.
WSU put the game away with a third quarter that saw WSU outscore the Peacocks 21-9 to take a 20-point, 58-38 lead at the end of three. The lead would never get less than 18 as the lead hovered mostly between 20 and 24 points before an Allison Hocking layup with 13 seconds to play gave WSU its largest lead of the game at 25 and put the finishing touches on an 83-58 victory.
Joining Roelofs and Timmerman, sophomore Hannah McGlone was the third Warrior to reach double figures, scoring 14 points on a terrific 7-of-8 shooting with five rebounds.
As a team WSU shot 54 percent (33-of-61), the third time it has shot better than 50 percent this season, while holding the Peacocks to 43 percent. WSU shot an equally impressive 53 percent (8-of-15) from 3-point range and made 9-of-10 free throws, continuing its acclaim of being one of the top free throw shooting teams in the nation this season.
No. 11 Winona State (8-0, 1-0 NSIC) hosts Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls next Friday and Saturday for its NSIC home openers in McCown Gymnasium.
