WINONA, Minn. – When the Winona State University men's basketball team connected on a backdoor-cut alley-oop dunk to open the scoring in their exhibition contest against Saint Mary's on Sunday, it felt like it was going to be that kind of day for the Warriors.
Forty minutes later, WSU found themselves on the right side of an 81-50 scoreline, handing the visiting Cardinals a lopsided exhibition loss.
Winona State and head coach
Todd Eisner, heading into his eighth season with the Warriors, saw Saint Mary's hang in the game in the early going, at one point closing the gap to a four-point ballgame at 15-11, following a three-pointer by the Cardinals' Breyton Buysman at the 12:03 mark of the first half.
However, Winona State began to pull away with two long offensive surges in the opening 20 minutes, the first a 16-point run highlighted by a
Luke Martens three-point play in which he was fouled on a mid-range jumper and successfully converted the subsequent free throw. Winona State ended the half with a flurry of made three-pointers, capped off by back-to-back-to-back triples from
Carter Lomas,
Jordan Wilkins, and
Carson Arenz.
After heading into the locker room with a 44-20 halftime edge, Winona State picked up where they left off in the second half, with Arenz opening the second stanza with another triple. WSU would go on to pull away from Saint Mary's with a frequent substitution rotation that saw all 15 players on the roster make the most of their minutes, outscoring SMU 37-30 in the final 20 minutes of play, resulting in the 81-50 final.
Winona State was effective on the offensive glass, scoring 11 points on second chance efforts, compared to just one bucket for the Cardinals on their offensive end of the floor. The WSU bench was the major difference in the game, with Warrior reserves outscoring the Cardinal subs, 51-10. And the Winona State post play superiority was apparent with WSU holding a 40-14 points-in-the-paint advantage.
Individually for Winona State,
Drew Adams led the Warrior way with 12 points, while
James Kelley scored 11 in his WSU debut.
Carson Arenz also reached double digits with 10 points and 12 different Warrior players scored in the contest.
Connor Drew led Winona State in rebounding with nine boards;
Sam Hytinen added six to the Warrior effort.
Owen King notched a game-high seven assists and had four steals.
As a team, Winona State shot 52.5% from the floor and hit 12-of-26 three-point attempts, good for a 42.6% mark. WSU held Saint Mary's to just 35.8% from the floor and a disciplined Winona State defensive effort sent the Cardinals to the free throw line on only two occasions.
Winona State will start the 2022-23 regular season with a trip to Kansas City, Mo. on Nov. 11 and Nov. 12. There, the Warriors will take on Pittsburg State University at 7 p.m. on Friday, and Missouri Southern on Saturday at 5 p.m.
