WINONA, Minn. – The Winona State University men's basketball team will have a short distance to travel in its final road trip of the regular season this weekend. The Warriors head to Concordia-St. Paul on Friday night, followed by a visit to Mankato in Saturday's regular season road finale.
Tipoff against the Golden Bears is set for 8 p.m. Game time against the Mavericks is slated for 6 p.m.
The Warriors have won 12 of their last 16 games dating back to their December 9, 2017 victory over CSP. Winona is 8-2 since the calendar flipped to 2018. WSU is 5-5 on the road this season, but has won three straight away from home.
The Warriors have owned a trio of four-game winning streaks throughout the 2017-18 campaign with the most recent being halted in an 82-64 setback by No. 16 Northern State University last Saturday.
Following a dominant 93-78 home win over Moorhead Friday, the Winona offense went cold the following night against Northern State. Caleb Wagner scored a career-high 25 points against Moorhead while Tommy Gathje went 10-of-12 from the field, scoring 15 of his 21 points in the first half. Kevion Taylor chipped in 10 points, nine rebounds and a career-best seven assists.
Gathje (12.6 ppg), Corey Jeffs (12.3) and Wagner (12.0) rank atop Winona's scoring leaderboard this season. Mason Domask is averaging 10.0 ppg. Gathje and Wagner are each shooting over 53% from the field.
Winona State ranks fourth in the NSIC in three-point shooting (40.2%) led by Domask (48%) and Wagner (45%). Gathje, Jeffs and Connor Flack are each also shooting over 41% from beyond the arc.
Wagner ranks second in the conference in assist/turnover ratio (2.8) and is fifth in assists/game (4.7).
The Warrior defense is fourth in the league by allowing 71.8 points per game.
Scouting Concordia
The Golden Bears (5-19, 4-14 NSIC) recently snapped a five-game skid, and have won two of their last three games entering the weekend. CSP is 3-8 at home this season and just 2-18 all-time at home against Winona.
The Warriors own a 44-6 advantage in the all-time series, including wins in each of the first 31 meetings from 1986-2008. WSU claimed a 77-59 triumph over the Golden Bears earlier this season led by Wagner's 22 points. Wagner and Domask combined to go 7-for-8 from downtown in the win.
CSP ranks last in the conference in scoring offense (68.9 ppg) and is 14th in scoring defense (79.7). Unlike the Warriors, the Golden Bears prefer shooting inside the arc and have taken the fewest three-point attempts in the league (390). Concordia ranks last in the NSIC in three-point shooting (33.1%).
The Golden Bears do lead the league in one category, albeit an undesirable one – turnovers committed (332). CSP ranks last in the conference in turnover margin (-4.26).
Concordia's Bryndan Matthews ranks eighth in the NSIC in scoring (18.3 ppg) and shooting (48.5%). He scored a team-best 16 points at Winona earlier this year. Matthews is also the Golden Bears' top rebounder, ranking seventh in the NSIC with 7.2 per game.
Scouting Mankato
The Mavericks (19-5, 15-3 NSIC) host Upper Iowa on Friday prior to Saturday's tilt with Winona. Mankato sits atop the NSIC South standings with a 10-0 intra-division mark. The Mavericks had their recent seven-game winning streak snapped on the road at St. Cloud State last Saturday, 80-71.
Winona State's last win in Mankato came just last season by a score of 89-64. The Warriors suffered an 83-72 home loss to the Mavericks earlier this season. MSU shot 48% in the game, including a 45% effort from downtown. WSU shot just 39% from the field, and went 4-for-13 from downtown. A 22-for-26 mark from the charity stripe kept Winona in the game. Charlie Koontz scored a season-high 17 points in the setback.
Mankato leads the NSIC in scoring offense (83.1 ppg), but is in the middle of the pack in scoring defense (74.1). The Mavericks also lead the league in three-point shooting at nearly a 44% clip.
Charlie Brown (15.6 ppg) and Kevin Krieger (15.5) lead the Mavericks' balanced scoring attack. However, the Warriors held those two players to a combined 14 points in their matchup earlier this season. Four other Mavericks managed to finish the game in double-digits, led by Carlos Anderson's 22 points.
Anderson went 6-for-11 from the field and was perfect in 10 attempts at the free throw line. Chris Kendrix added 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from long range against Winona.
