You might say that there are three guarantees in life; death, taxes and wild games at the Stewart Center between USF and Winona State.
The Cougars trailed just 54-53 after the third quarter and battled to a wild finish, but the Warriors (14-4, 10-4 NSIC) were in the bonus early in the third quarter and hit enough free throws down the stretch to hand USF (18-3, 11-3 NSIC) just their second-ever home loss to the Warriors.
The only other win for Winona State in the Stewart Center was a controversial one. In January 2016, the Warriors edged USF 60-59 after a technical foul was called on the Cougars bench when fans rushed the floor at the buzzer.
Senior Jessie Geer led the Cougars off the bench with 18 points on 8-for-13 shooting, scoring with an array of 3s, runners, floaters, baseline drives and the occasional bank of the glass. She also finished with six rebounds, two steals and a block.
Geer led four Cougars in double figures. Kaley Hummel had 17 points, Anna Goodhope added 16 and Mariah Szymanski finished with 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting.
Winona State forward Taylor Hustad had a significant hand in what is only USF’s second home loss of the season. The 5-foot-10 junior made 9 of 18 shots for a game-high 23 points, including several transition buckets.
USF also had no answer for WSU center Emma Fee, who played with a terrific combination of strength and skill to finish with 19 points on 7-for-10 shooting and went a perfect 5-for-5 at the line.
Both teams finished with 32 rebounds. USF held a slight 14-13 edge in points off turnovers. The Cougar bench accounted for 21 points.
The Warriors hit first with a 9-2 run to open the game, but the Cougars started hitting close-range jumpers and crashing the glass. The two teams battled back and forth through the entire first half and Winona State carried a 36-35 lead into halftime.Down eight points in the third quarter and close to getting run out of their building, USF head coach Travis Traphagen didn’t panic. His eleventh-ranked Cougars wouldn’t let him, and the senior trio of Hummel, Geer and Szymanski keyed the Cougars to a 12-5 run to trim WSU’s lead to 54-53 at the end of the frame.
Anna Goodhope next picked up the slack, scoring seven fourth quarter points to keep the Cougars in the game. At the 4:50 mark, the junior forward picked a Warrior pocket and raced ahead to receive the pass from Hummel for the bucket and the foul, cutting the WSU lead to 64-60.
It was a free throw fest for the Warriors in the final minutes, and they took advantage to push the lead back to seven at 74-67 with only 48 seconds to go.
That’s when things got interesting, with the Cougars digging deep for an 8-2 run that was capped by an acrobatic Greer layup to make it a 76-75 game with eight seconds left.
A pair of free throws from Hustad put the Warriors in front 78-75 with four seconds on the clock.
Winona State fouled immediately to prevent any long-range heroics from USF, the best three-point shooting team (37.9%) in the conference. Syzmanski made the first and intentionally missed the second and the Warriors got the rebound, but the ball came loose and rolled under the hoop. Szymanski collected it and tossed a last-chance jumper but the buzzer sounded before it left her hand.
The Warriors now lead the all-time series with USF, 6-9. The loss snapped USF’s nine-game winning streak and trimmed their lead in NSIC South to a single game.
USF travels to Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston next weekend.
