MANKATO, Minn. – Junior Tara Roelofs scored a career-high 29 points to lead the unbeaten No. 11 Winona State women's basketball team to a 74-59 road victory over Minnesota State Saturday evening in front of 1,072 spectators at the Taylor Center in Mankato.
Roelofs topped her previous best effort of 26 points set earlier this year at Upper Iowa with a terrific performance, shooting 10-of-18 from the field (56 percent), including 3-of-5 from 3-point range, along with five rebounds, two steals, a block and an assist. Roelofs also hit all six of her free throws.
The 29 points from Roelofs was the most by a Warrior since Abby Busch's school record-setting 39 point performance against Augustana on Feb. 22, 2014.
It wasn't easy for the Warriors early on, as a feisty Maverick team hung with the Warriors in the first half. Kayla Timmerman opened the game with a 3-pointer on the first possession, but a 3-pointer from MSU's Britney Scherber put the Mavericks up 8-7 three minutes in. Soon after, Roelofs buried a 3-pointer to put the Warriors up four, but again a 3-pointer from MSU put the home team back in front by two with three minutes left in the first quarter. A pair of Alexis Foley free throws got it back up to four, but WSU led by just one, 20-19, at the first period break.
The Warriors upped their lead to 25-29 early in the second quarter, but went cold for the next five and a half minutes as the Mavericks mounted an 11-0 run to take a seven-point, 36-29 lead with 2:30 to play in the half. WSU answered with a 9-1 run throughout the remainder of the half and led by one point at halftime.
Roelofs scored 16 second half points to spark the Warriors. Her first points of the third quarter broke the fourth tie of the game with a layup at the 4:28 mark. Winona State would never trail again and Roelofs closed out the third quarter with a 3-pointer to bring the WSU lead to 59-50 with a period still to play.
Roelofs would made sure the Mavericks pulled no closer than seven throughout the remainder of the game, as the Vernon Center, Minnesota native scored nine points in the fourth quarter. The dagger came with 1:59 to play, when her third and final 3-ball put the Warriors up 14 at 70-56. Timmerman followed with a pair of free throws to grow the lead to its largest of the game at 16 before settling for the 74-59 victory.
Timmerman finished with a game-high nine rebounds with three assists, two blocks and seven points. Connor Nagle added 14 points and picked up three steals, while Foley added 10 points with three assists.
Winona State (12-0, 5-0 NSIC) plays its final game of 2015 next Saturday when it hosts Upper Iowa for a 2 p.m. tipoff inside McCown Gymnasium.
