This Week's Women's Basketball Storylines:SEEKING A SWEEP: After two strong home performances against Concordia-St. Paul and Minnesota State, the Warriors will be looking to sweep the season series with Upper Iowa when they travel to Fayette, Iowa. Winona State will take on the Peacocks on Saturday at 4 p.m. in Dorman Gymnasium.
ROELOFS TO THE RESCUE: Winona State got a big weekend out of sophomore guard
Tara Roelofs. She put together a 43 point weekend in the two wins against the Golden Bears and the Mavericks. Roelofs scored 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting against Concordia and followed it up with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting and five rebounds against Minnesota State.
TOP OF THE NSIC SOUTH HEAP: Upon getting the win against Minnesota State, the Warriors now currently hold a tie for first place in the stacked NSIC South with Sioux Falls. Winona State leads the way in an incredibly strong NSIC South that contains six teams with winning records on the year. The Warriors are also statistically one of the best teams in the NSIC. The Warriors lead the NSIC in field goal and free throw percentage, are fourth in scoring offense, third in scoring defense, and second in scoring margin.
TRIPLE-THREAT BACKCOURT: Winona State's starting backcourt gave the Mavericks nightmares in the Minnesota State game Saturday. The starting backcourt containing
Tara Roelofs,
Alexis Foley and
Connor Nagle scored 56 of the Warriors' 73 points. Roelofs led the way with 21, Nagle added 19, and Foley scored 16 to spearhead the victory over the Mavericks.
BLOCKING AND BOARDING: After putting together a monster performance against Sioux Falls, sophomore center
Kayla Timmerman recovered from her injury in that game in a big way last weekend. While seeing limited minutes in both games off the bench, Timmerman recorded a second-straight 10-rebound game against the Golden Bears. In the MSU game, Timmerman recorded another seven boards, but more importantly entered the WSU record book with a six block performance, tying her for the ninth best blocking performance in a single game in Warrior history.
PROVING HER 'WIRTH': WSU Head Coach
Scott Ballard made a lineup change and decided to start sophomore forward
Emily Wirth for the first time this season. It turned out to be a strong move, as Wirth recorded multiple personal bests in the Concordia game. Wirth recorded season-highs in scoring with 15 points, field goals with six, three-point field goals with three, assists with four, and played a season-high 32 minutes as well.
CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION: Winona State did some major damage from charity stripe in both games this past weekend. The Warriors nailed 20-of-25 free throws against Concordia-St. Paul Friday night and followed that up with a perfect 14-of-14 performance against Minnesota State on Saturday night. The Warriors possess the best free-throw shooting team in the NSIC at 77.9 percent and are currently the 11th best free throw shooting team in the country, just 0.1 percent out from cracking into the top 10.
RAIDING THE NEST: While Winona State already defeated Upper Iowa 85-69 to open up conference play in McCown Gymnasium, the Warriors will look to avenge a road loss to the Peacocks last year. The last time the Warriors played in Dorman Gymnasium, the Peacocks got just their second all-time win against WSU in a 66-58 game where the Warriors only shot 32 percent from the field. The Warriors hold a 21-2 series edge, including winning 17 of the last 18 matchups.
