WINONA, Minn. -- The No. 8 Winona State women's basketball team opens NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament play Wednesday as the No. 1 seed, welcoming the Bemidji State Beavers into McCown Gymnasium for a 6 p.m. tipoff.

BEMIDJI STATE at WINONA STATE FIRST LOOK: 
Overall Series: Beavers lead 42-33 ... 76th Matchup
First meeting: Feb. 23, 1974 ... WSU won 41-37
Last meeting: Jan. 29, 2016 ... WSU won 65-56 at BSU
Last BSU win over WSU: Dec. 9, 2011 ... BSU won 69-62 at WSU 
WSU Last Game: W, 69-59 at Augustana
BSU Last Game: L, 68-53 vs Northern State

LAST TIME OUT: The Warriors pushed their winning streak to 11 games, closing out the regular season with double-digit wins over Wayne State and Augustana.

REGULAR SEASON RECAP: The Warriors assembled the most storied regular season in program history, setting a school record with 27 overall wins and 20 NSIC victories.

LAST TIME VS. THE BEAVERS: The Warriors earned a 65-56 win over BSU on Jan. 29 in Bemidji. Alexis Foley scored a game-high 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting, while Kayla Timmerman and Hannah McGlone narrowly missed double-doubles with 17-8 and 10-9, respectively.

ABOUT THE BEAVERS: BSU is coached by Chelsea DeVille, who has a 7-19 record (3-19 NSIC) in her first season at the helm of the Beavers. BSU is led by Tatum Sheley's 13 ppg, while Aimee Pelzer adds 12.8 and Hanna Zerr adds 10.9. 
 
WHAT A WIN WOULD MEAN: A win over Bemidji State sends the Warriors to the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament Quarterfinals at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls, where they would take on the winner of St. Cloud State and Concordia-St. Paul at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

LAST YEAR IN THE TOURNAMENT: The Warriors earned a 67-62 win over U-Mary in the opening round thanks to a late 3-pointer from Connor Nagle before falling to MSU Moorhead 93-84 in the Quarterfinals  at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls.

FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP: The Warriors secured their first NSIC regular season in program history with their win over Concordia-St. Paul in the regular season finale. The Warriors have one NSIC Tournament title to their name as well, earning the 2011 crown with a 63-61 victory over Concordia-St. Paul on the Golden Bears' home floor.

THREE-TIME NAGLE: Senior Connor Nagle is making the most of her final stretches of her Warrior career, earning the last three NSIC Player of the Week Awards. Nagle has made at least four 3-pointers in the past seven games and 42 during that span (54.5 percent). She leads the NSIC in field goal percentage at 45.2 percent.

NAGLE NEARS A RECORD: Nagle moved into second place in the WSU record book for 3-pointers made in a season, surpassing assistant coach Ana Wurtz who had 92 in the 2008-09 season. Nagle currently has 98, five shy of Becca Friestleben's record of 103 set in 2012-13.

LIGHTS-OUT SHOOTING: The Warriors' win over Minnesota Crookston marked the most efficient shooting performance of any team in DIvision II this season. WSU shot a sweltering 67.8 percent (40-of-59) from the field, more than two percentage points better than Western Washington's 65.7 percent performance this season.

OFFENSE AND DEFENSE: The Warriors are statistically superior on both offense and defense. WSU leads the NSIC in both field goal percentage (45.4 percent) and field goal percentage defense (34.1 percent) while ranking 2nd in scoring offense (74.1 percent, . 1 behind Augie's 74.1) and first in scoring defense (54.6, ahead of USF's 60.1).

200 FOR BALLARD: WSU head coach Scott Ballard won his 200th game at WSU earlier this season at Bemidji State. The winningest coach in program history, Ballard is in his 12th season at WSU with a record of 207-140. In his 26-year NCAA coaching career, he holds a record of 476-274.

TIMMERMAN'S BLOCK PARTY: Kayla Timmerman is having a record setting season when it comes to blocks. She's already set single-season (87+) and game (11) records and ranks third in Division II with 3.22 blocks per game.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Senior guard Alexis Foley notched WSU's first NSIC South Division Player of the Week accolade on  Feb. 1 after leading the Warriors to wins over BSU and UMC. Foley averaged 19.5 points and 7.5 assists with a fantastic 15-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. She added her first career double-double against UMC with 17 points and a career-high 11 assists. Foley shot 65 percent in the games. The Warriors have four player of the week awardees this season.

ATOP THE NATION: The Warriors currently rank in the top five in Division II in a pair of statistical categories. WSU remains the No. 1 team in the nation in free throw shooting at 79.7%, while WSU ranks No. 2 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.35, behind only NSIC South foe Sioux Falls' 1.43.

NATIONAL RANKING: The Warriors remained at No. 8 in the latest WBCA Top 25 Coaches' poll, the highest ranking in program history. The Warriors dropped four spots to No. 14 in the D2SIDA Poll.

REGIONAL RANKING: The Warriors were ranked fourth in the initial NCAA Central Region rankings released last Wednesday. Missouri Western State was picked No. 1, followed by Pittsburg State and Fort Hays State.

LIMITING STAR PLAYERS: The Warriors have allowed just three opposing players to reach 20 points this season. Concordia-St. Paul's Anna Schmitt put together a 21-point game against the Warriors on Dec. 11. WSU surrendered its second 20-point scorer in an 83-80 loss to U-Mary when Brittney Dietz scored 26 and Wayne State's Maggie Schulte scored 23 last Friday. The Warriors, meanwhile, have had a 20-point scorer on 18 different occasions.