QUINCY, Ill. – Down 27-19 at the half, the Winona State women's basketball team battled back to beat Quincy University 65-62 in overtime on Sunday, Nov. 20, sweeping their weekend games at the Hansen-Spear Funeral Home Classic tournament and extending the WSU unbeaten streak to five games.
Winona State (5-0, 0-0 NSIC) saw QU start strong, with the host Hawks outscoring WSU 14-12 in the first quarter and 13-7 in the second stanza to take a 27-19 lead into the dressing room.
In the first half, WSU's offense was slow to warm up, hitting just five of 14 attempts in the opening 10 minutes of play and connecting on just three of 14 shots in the second quarter. Winona State did not attempt a free throw in the first half and hit just three of 15 shots from behind the arc.
After the break, however, things changed.
Head coach Ana Wurtz saw her team find their shooting rhythm in the third quarter, knocking down five of their ten shot attempts from inside the three-point line, and earning seven free throws, connecting on five. At the defensive end of the floor, Winona State held the hosts to just nine third quarter points, which allowed the Warriors to climb back to within two points at 36-34 at the end of thirty minutes of play.
Winona State opened the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run to start the period, taking the lead for the first time since the opening seconds of the contest. However, Quincy scored five points in the last twenty seconds of regulation, as the Hawks' Beth Mattis hit a 3-pointer with 19 seconds remaining and then a short jumper with just three ticks on the clock to tie the teams 51-51 at the buzzer.
In overtime, Winona State found their form from the foul line, connecting on every free throw they earned while also out-rebounding the Hawks in the extra session, 8-6. The combination of grit down low and accuracy from the charity stripe allowed WSU to pull away for a 65-62 OT win, moving to 5-0 on the season in the process.
Alex Dornfeld turned in her third double-double performance in as many games, scoring a career-high 24 points and hauling in 12 rebounds to lead both teams in the contest. Just 24 hours earlier, Dornfeld hit for 18 points and ten rebounds in 64-50 win over McKendree and on Sunday, the junior from Markesan, Wis. was a key contributor in the Warrior win.
WSU's Lauren Fech added 20 points and dished out three assists in the victory. Fech found success from the free throw line in overtime, going 6-for-6 on free throws in the bonus basketball period to ice the victory.
Fech was joined by two Warrior teammates who were also clutch at the free throw line, as Caitlin Riley (2-for-2) and Lindsay Hahn (5-for-5) contributed significantly to the WSU 18-of-21 team mark on free throws. Hahn had eight points overall on the night while Ava Sergio hauled in ten rebounds and handed out three assists.
As a team, Winona State recovered from the cold-shooting first half to go 22-of-56 (39.3%) overall. WSU hit just 3-of-20 from behind the 3-point line overall in the contest but were a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line in the overtime period to earn the win.
Winona State's five game winning streak to start the 2022-23 season is the best start for Warrior women's basketball since the 2015-16 campaign, when WSU went 13-0 to start the year.
WSU will move into NSIC play on Tuesday, Nov. 22 when they host Upper Iowa University (4-1 overall, 0-0 NSIC) in McCown Gymnasium, home of WNB Financial Court. The Warriors and Peacocks will tip off at 7:30 p.m. in the back half of a NSIC double header, as the WSU-UIU men's teams will tip off at 5:30 p.m.
