The short college exhibition season continued today with the D2 Winona State Warrior women traveling to Iowa State to face the D1 Cyclones. It is no surprise in such games when the D1 team wins on its own home court. How could it not? Well, it happens, but not very often.
In this case, Winona State hung tough, trailing 38-27 with 2:30 left in the 1st half. Iowa State closed the half on a 7-0 run, however, and never looked back. Winona shot 57% in the 1st half to stay within 45-27. Imagine the 2nd half when they shot 17 percent and scored just 2 points in the 4th quarter. Ouch. Even shooting 57 percent in the 1st, there weren't enough shots, as the Warriors turned it over 15 times against the Cyclones pressure defense.
Two Minnesotans started and played well for Winona. They are 5-11 senior forward Kayla Schaefer (Paynesville), who scored 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting and had 6 rebounds, but also had 7 turnovers. 5-7 sophomore guard Allie Pickrain (Eastview) scored 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting (3-of-7 from long range) but also had 4 turnovers. 5-11 sophomore forward Taylor Hustad (New Prague) started but failed to score. 5-11 freshman guard Sydney Lodermeier (Goodhue) came off the bench to score 3 points with 5 boards. 6-1 sophomore Emma Fee (Burnsville) also came off the bench and scored 1 point.
The Warriors went 17-13 last year (10-12 in the Northern Sun) but get almost everybody back. Pickrain is a 1st team Southern Division pre-season all-conference pick. She scored 13 ppg last year as a freshman and was the NSIC Freshman of the Year. She ranked #13 nationally in D2 by shooting 43 percent from long range. The Warriors were picked for 4th place in the South (behind Sioux Falls, Concordia-St. Paul and Augustana) in the pre-season coach's poll.
Meanwhile, Kristin Scott (Kasson-Mantorville), a 6-3 redshirt freshman at Iowa State, came off the bench to score 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting while also grabbing 8 boards, 5 of them on the offensive end. The Cyclones were an uncharacteristic 14-17 last year, 7-11 in the Big 12, but look for improvement around a 6-3 (Scott), 6-3, 6-1 frontline consisting of two sophomores and the redshirt freshman, Scott.
Both teams anticipate some improvement this year, but a win over a D2 visitor is hardly an indicator thereof, nor is a road loss at a D1 power an indicator that Winona won't be improved. Both play in fiendishly tough conferences, however, so let's just say we'll be monitoring their progress.
Our Game, Player, Team and Coach of the Day awards go into the hopper for our first monthly award, and our monthly winners then go into the mix for our annual awards next March or April. Cheers.
Player of the Day--Kayla Schaefer, 5-11, senior, Winona State, 12 points, 6 rebounds
Team of the Day--Winona State
Coach of the Day--Scott Ballard, Winona State
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