MANKATO, Minn. – Sophomore center Kyle Bauman turned in the best performance of his career when the Warriors needed it the most, scoring a career-high 21 points – including the clutch game-winner with 1.5 seconds left – to claim a 68-66 victory over rival Minnesota State Friday night at the Taylor Center in Mankato.
The Warriors hadn't won a road game all the season. The Mavericks hadn't lost a home game all season. Bauman made sure that would change.
Down 13 points with 11:31 to play, Bauman took over, scoring 15 of his 21 points from that point on as the Warriors mounted their comeback. His jumper brought it to 11 at 51-40, then a layup followed by another jumper made it 51-44 with 10:19 to play. He hit another shot with under eight minutes to play to make it 54-48, then another to bring the Warriors to just four with 7:29 left. His most emphatic points of the night came on an and-one dunk to complete a 3-point play to pull the Warriors to within three at 56-53.
Tim Wagner soon followed with a big 3-point shot – the final of four from the redshirt freshman in the game – to finally put the Warriors out front at 58-56, but MSU retook a lead with under a minute to play. Isaiah Gray put WSU back up 64-63 with a pair of free throws with 52 seconds to play and Conrad Masberg did the same to give WSU a 66-63 lead, but MSU answered with a 3-pointer by Connor Miller to tie it at 66-66 with 21 seconds left.
Enter Kyle Bauman. With Gray patiently bringing the ball down the floor, he found an open Bauman who sank the jumper to sink the Mavericks and give the Warriors the biggest win of the season and third straight road win over the Mavericks.
Though the Warriors never led in the opening 20 minutes, they were able to keep it close throughout as Minnesota State's largest lead was nine. After Isaiah Gray tied the score at 2-2 early on with a layup, the Mavericks went on an 8-2 run to take a 10-4 lead capped off by an Assem Marei layup with 15:41 to play.
MSU's Zach Monaghan then hit a 3-pointer to open up a 13-6 lead, but Tim Wagner countered with back-to-back triples – WSU's only attempts from beyond the arc of the half – to cut the lead to 13-12 near the 12 minute mark. A TJ Lake 3-pointer put MSU up 23-16, but the theme of the first half would be the Warriors answering, and WSU did with four straight points from Gray to cut it to 23-20 with 6:34 to play. Another 8-1 spurt from the Mavericks opened up their largest lead of the half at 31-22, but WSU wouldn't let it get out of hand as a layup from Mohamed Ali Ben Ammar and an Isaiah Gray drive to the basket as time expired brought the score to 33-26 at halftime.
Gray led the Warriors with nine first-half points on 3-of-5 shooting, while Ben Ammar added seven and Wagner had six as the Warriors outshot the Mavericks 41.7 percent to 36.4 percent despite the scoring deficit.
The second half would be a much different story, as the Warriors shot a blistering 60.7 percent (17-of-28) while holding the Mavericks to 44 percent. For the game, WSU finished 27-for-52 from the field (51.9 percent) while the Mavericks were held to 40 percent (24-of-60). More impressively, the Warriors performance came without the benefit of floor general Riley Bambenek, who played just two minutes in the game.
Gray finished with 16 points and eight rebounds on 5-of-10 shooting, while Wagner's four 3-pointers gave him 12 points.
Winona State (12-11, 9-10 NSIC) looks to make it a road winning streak Saturday when it travels to Concordia-St. Paul to face the Golden Bears at 6 p.m. inside the Gangelhoff Center.
