Box Score
MOORHEAD, Minn. -- Three Minnesota State University Moorhead players scored 18 points or more to help the Dragons earn a 79-62 win over Winona State in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference women's basketball Saturday night at Nemzek Fieldhouse in Moorhead, Minn.

The Dragons improved to 12-8 overall and 8-8 in the NSIC with the win while Winona State fell to 8-12 overall and 4-12 in the league with its ninth straight loss.

Senior forward Morgan Zabel became the 21st Dragon women's basketball player to reach 1,000 career points with her basket in the final two minutes. Zabel, who had 18 points, is now exactly at 1,000 for her Dragon career and joins senior teammate Megan Strese as the latest Dragons in the 1,000-point club.

Strese led the Dragons with 20 points and 10 rebounds while Zabel added 18 points and a game-high five assists.  Sophomore guard Meghan Roehrich added 18 points off the bench for MSUM, hitting 4-of-5 three-pointers.  Senior guard Haley Thomforde had six points and four assists while redshirt freshman guard Morgan Banasik added three steals.

The Dragons shot 50 percent (24-of-48) for the game while holding the Warriors to 40.4 percent (23-of-57). The Dragons had a 36-26 edge in rebounds.

MSUM led by five at halftime but Winona State closed the gap to 42-41 with 15:30 left. The Dragons answered with the decisive run of the night -- outscoring the Warriors 14-3 over the net four-plus minutes to stretch the lead to 56-44. Roehrich led the way for MSUM with five points while Zabel buried a three-pointer.

The Warriors never got closer than 10 the rest of the way.

MSUM faced a 6-0 deficit to start the game and trailed 14-9 with 14:20 left in the first half before surging into the lead with a 12-4 run over the next six minutes. That spurt, which put MSUM up 21-18 with 8:46 left in the half, was led by four points from Roehrich while sophomore forward Handevidt, Megan Strese, Banasik and Thomforde each had two.

The Dragons stretched their lead to 29-23 when Roehrich buried one of her three first-half three-pointers.  The Warriors cut the lead to 34-32 late in the half, but a three-pointer from freshman Natalie Van Wyhe with 14 seconds left gave them a 37-32 lead, which was the half-time score.

MSUM shot 44 percent (11-of-25) from the field in the first half, compared to 41.9 percent (13-of-31) for the Warriors. MSUM's big advantage was at the free-throw line, as the Dragons hit 10-of-10 in the first half, while Winona State did not get to the line once.

Roehrich had 13 first-half points for the Dragons, hitting 3-of-4 from behind the three-point arc. Megan Strese had 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting.  Zabel had four first-half assists.

For the game, Van Wyhe added six points and four rebounds in 13 minutes off of the bench, while Handevidt added six points and five rebounds.

The Dragons continue their four-game homestand on Friday, Feb. 7 at home against St. Cloud State. Game time is 6 p.m. at Nemzek Fieldhouse. The game will also be telecast live on WDAY Channel 6.3, which is Midcontinent Communications channel 596.

Steve d'Eustachio Stat of the Game: Tonight is the fourth time that the Dragons, under Karla Nelson, have faced Winona St. while the Warriors have been on a losing streak of at least seven games (they entered tonight with eight consecutive losses). The '04-'05 Dragons eliminated Winona St. 89-64 in Moorhead in the first round of the NSIC tournament on Mar. 2, 2005 sending Winona St. to its 13th consecutive defeat. MSU Moorhead extended Winona State's losing streak to eight with a 78-63 win in Winona on Jan. 21, 2006, but then the Warriors would ultimately end their losing slide at 10, by defeating the Dragons in Moorhead 62-60, three weeks later.