WINONA, Minn. – The Winona State University women's basketball team returns to McCown Gymnasium this weekend for its first two home NSIC contests for the 2017-18 season.
The Warriors host Minnesota State Mankato on Friday night at 6 p.m. and conclude the weekend with a 4 p.m. tilt against Concordia St. Paul on Saturday.
Both games will be telecast on HBC25.
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WEEKEND RECAP: The Warriors suffered their first loss of the 2017-18 campaign last Friday on a last-second shot at Sioux Falls. In the game, the two teams were all knotted up after three quarters of play. WSU was up nine points late in the fourth only to see it fade away in a 61-60 heartbreaking loss. Saturday's contest against SMSU was another close affair. The Warriors built a 22-point lead to start the second half of Saturday's game, but then the Mustangs got hot from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter to shrink the deficit to three points. Winona State was able to make a final push and hold off Southwest by a score of 68-66.
SCOUTING REPORT: Minnesota State is 1-6 (0-2 NSIC) on the season, losing their first two conference games this past weekend. Claire Ziegler is the Maverick to watch. She is averaging 10.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. As for the Golden Bears (2-5, 0-2 NSIC), they are also winless to start off the NSIC schedule. Anna Schmitt is the one to watch for CSP, averaging 24.1 points per game which is sixth in the country.
YOUTH OF THE NATION: Last year, the Warriors said goodbye to five seniors including their leading scorer Jenny Tuttle, and Tara Roelofs whose name is all over the Winona State record books. This year's squad is full of young talent. Six freshmen join the team this year while Ballard returns two sophomores, two juniors, and lone senior Hannah McGlone. Joining the team this year is redshirt-sophomore Alyssa Jurges coming from Lewis University where she played in 12 games last year and scored 21 points. Also new to the team is junior Rachel Novotny from Lake Superior State. Rachel started every game last year for the Lakers and averaged 7.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
MAKING IT RAIN: Freshman Allie Pickrain is making a big impression on this Warrior team early this season. She is averaging 13 points per game while shooting 45% from three-point range. This past weekend, she added two more double-digit performances to her young resume.
SENIOR STANDOUT: Hannah McGlone is having herself one heck of a senior season so far. This season, she is shooting 60% from the field and has already tallied 79 rebounds in seven games. McGlone currently ranks fifth in the NSIC in points per game (17.0), first in field goal percentage (.603), first in rebounds per game (11.3). This past weekend, she moved into third on the Winona State all-time list for rebounds (729) while also notching a career-high 25 points in Friday's game at Sioux Falls. For her efforts, she was named the NSIC South Player of the Week.
