This Week's Women's Basketball Storylines:

LAST TRIP: The Winona State women's basketball team will make its final regular-season road trip when it takes on Minnesota State Friday night at 6 p.m. at the Taylor Center in Mankato and then plays Concordia-St. Paul Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.

ROAD RESURGENCE: Winona State won its first two road games of 2015 this past weekend at St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth. The Warriors defeated the Huskies 64-61 to get their first road win since defeating Upper Iowa 65-47 in Fayette on Dec. 20. WSU followed it up with a dominating 67-47 win at Minnesota Duluth.

BENCH POINTS: The Warriors continued to get outstanding production from their bench this past weekend. Sophomore forward Jenny Weiland scored a career-high 13 points and Kayla Timmerman added nine points and 10 rebounds off-the-bench against St. Cloud State. The following night, the bench accounted for 42 of the team's 67 points against Minnesota Duluth, with Timmerman scoring 20 points and junior guard Emily Passint scoring a season-high eight points.

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS: Winona State, the third-best scoring defense in the NSIC (57.8 ppg) will be challenged by Minnesota State, who has the third-best scoring offense in the NSIC (73.9 ppg). Much like the Warriors, the Mavericks have a balanced scoring lineup with four players averaging more than nine points a game with Aubrey Davis (13.4 ppg), Lexie Ulfers (12.6 ppg), Sammie Delzotto (11.8 ppg) and Ashley Olson (9.2 ppg). On the plus side, the Warriors are drawing the Mavericks in a week where they play three games as they are coming off an 86-73 home loss to Concordia-St. Paul Tuesday night.

SERIES HISTORY VERSUS THE MAVERICKS: The Warriors are 15-28 all-time against the Mavericks, but have had some recent success against them. Winona State snapped a five-game losing streak against Minnesota State earlier this season with a 73-62 win against them in McCown Gymnasium on Dec. 13. The Warriors will look to get similar play from their guards, as the starting backcourt trio of Tara Roelofs, Connor Nagle, and Alexis Foley combined to score 56 of the team's 73 points in the win.

SECOND AT STAKE: The Warriors and Mavericks have a lot at stake in this matchup. With both teams tied for second in the NSIC South and both two games back of division leader Wayne State. The winner of this matchup, they will possess second in the NSIC South standings outright, remain at most two games back of Wayne State and hold at least a three game lead on Augustana and Concordia-St. Paul for the fourth seed in the NSIC Tournament with three games left to play.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS: Concordia-St. Paul possesses the sixth-best scoring offense in the NSIC (71.1 ppg) and are led by Anika Whiting (15.6 ppg) and Amishea Kearney (12.6 ppg). Winona State will also need to work around the conference's leading shot blocker Kionda Nicks, who currently has 60 blocked shots in 24 games for the Golden Bears. But had none against the Warriors in the first meeting.

SERIES HISTORY VERSUS THE GOLDEN BEARS: Winona State is 13-25 all-time against Concordia-St. Paul, but much like the Mavericks, the Warriors have found some success against the Golden Bears as of late. Winona State has won five of the last eight meetings and snapped a three-game skid against the Golden Bears in a 71-61 home win on Dec. 12. Roelofs scored a season-high 22 points in the matchup and Emily Wirth scored a career-high 15 points.