BEMIDJI, Minn. – Isaiah Gray scored 16 second half points, Riley Bambenek joined the 1,000-point club and the Winona State men's basketball team rebounded from an early scoring drought to post an 84-77 win over Bemidji State Friday night at the BSU Gymnasium.

Gray, who scored just one point in the first half, took over the game late in the second half, scoring 16 points in the final 7:10 with the Warriors needing a spark trailing 62-58. Gray's scores kept the Warriors within striking distance at a two-possession game before a jumper with three minutes to play – his 11^th point of the half – finally gave WSU a 71-70 lead, its first since a 34-33 lead to open the second half.

Gray wasn't done, as a jumper upped the lead to 73-70, and a pair of key defensive rebounds eventually led to a layup to put the Warriors up five, 75-70, with 1:10 to play. Gray then hit a free throw to stretch it to six and the WSU sealed it at the line throughout the final minute to claim the 84-77 win.

The Warriors also got big-time contributions outside of Gray, who finished his night 6-of-9 from the field with five rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench. Bambenek – who hit a 3-pointer late in the first half to become the 36^th player in WSU history to reach 1,000 career points – finished tied with Gray for a game-high 17 points on the strength of three 3-pointers and a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe. The junior also dished out a game-high three assists and had four rebounds.

Before Gray could give the Warriors their final spark, it was the play of freshmen Tommy Gathje and Connor Flack, who carried WSU through important stretches. Trailing 48-36 with 15 minutes to play, Gathje hit back-to-back 3-pointers to pull the Warriors within six. He then hit a layup on the following possession, came up with a steal on the other end and added a fastbreak layup for 10 points in under two minutes. He then capped off the stellar stretch by finding Flack for a 3-pointer and the Warriors trailed by just two, 51-49, with 12:13 left.

Before the impressive second half, the Warriors had to dig themselves out of a substantial first half hole as a 19-1 run spanning more than eight minutes in which the Warriors made just one of 13 shots during the stretch left the Warriors trailing 25-10 with 7:23 to play. But a 3-pointer from Corey Jeffs helped end the funk and a 9-0 run to end the half – capped off by a 3-pointer from Kyle Bauman to beat the buzzer – had the Warriors down just one at the break.

Bauman was the fourth Warrior to finish in double figures, scoring 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting with five rebounds, two steals and a pair of 3-pointers.

Bemidji State outshot the Warriors from the field by a 49 percent to 45 percent edge, but WSU was 9-of-18 from 3-point range compared to the Beavers' 5-of-19.

Winona State (9-10, 8-7 NSIC) returns to action Saturday when it travels to Minnesota Crookston to take on the Golden Eagles at 6 p.m. inside Lysaker Gymnasium.