WINONA, Minn. - The Winona State men's basketball team opened their 2025-26 season with an exhibition game against Saint Mary's University, an NCAA Division III school in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), winning convincingly 79-49.
The Warriors got off to a red-hot start, scoring the first 15 points of the game. Winona State never looked back, as four Warriors scored double digit points to cruise to victory.
How it Happened:
With a load of new players on this year's Winona State roster, head coach
Todd Eisner got to showcase a first look of the team in front of a big home crowd inside McCown Gymnasium. The Warriors dominated the game from the tip, as they started out the game 15-0 off two buckets apiece from
Ryan Heise and
Gavyn Hurley. Saint Mary's was able to trim the deficit to 22-10, but a layup and three-pointer by Heise extended the Warrior lead to 27-12. WSU grew their lead to 42-14 from a 9-0 run led by five points from freshman
Aidan Bardic with 2:01 left in the half.
The Warriors dominated the start of the second half with four points by
Tyler Mason and Bardic respectively, to put the lead at 30 with a score of 55-25. A putback dunk by
Ryan Watters followed by yet another layup from Bardic gave the squad a 59-30 lead at the first media timeout of the second half.
Jackson Hayes went on a mini-run scoring six of the Warriors eight points during the final stretch of the game for the Warriors to make it 77-49.
Alessandro Tonelli knocked in a jumper with 39 seconds left to make it the final score of 79-49.
Statistical Comparison
- The Warriors shot the lights out of the ball, going 34-of-63 (54.0%). The Cardinals were 18-of-48 (37.5%) in the loss.
- Winona State dominated on the glass, outrebounding Saint Mary's 40-26.
- Each team knocked in seven three pointers, with the Warriors going 7-of-25 (28.0%) and the Cardinals shooting 7-of-29 (24.1%) from behind the arc.
- WSU recorded 18 assists in the victory, while Saint Mary's chipped in eight assists in the exhibition.
- The Warriors ferocious defense forced a whopping 20 turnovers that led to 25 points off turnovers. Saint Mary's scored 12 points from the Warriors 13 turnovers.
- Winona State was led in scoring by Bardic. The freshman put up 16 points on a perfect seven-of-seven shooting from the field while going one-of-two from the charity strip.
- Other players in double figures include Heise (15), Hurley (12), and Hayes (11).
- Heise and Tonelli led the Warriors with six rebounds each.
- Mason had a team-high five assists to compliment his nine points in the victory.
- Saint Mary's was led by Josh Palmer who knocked in nine points off three-of-eight shooting from behind the arc.
- Jackson Harvey, Sawyer Markham, and Reid Weckwerth each added eight points for the Cardinals.
- Harvey had a team-high six rebounds in the defeat.
Winona State will begin regular season play on Friday, November 14 at 1:00pm when they face off against Southern Arkansas University down in Pittsburg, Kansas.
