Alex Eisen/MDN Minot State senior guard Mariah Payne (4) drives to the basket Friday evening against Winona State. Payne scored a game-high 19 points in a 68-53 win.

Shouting “patience” over and over again, Minot State women’s basketball head coach Mark Graupe eagerly watched the clock tick down.

The Beavers (5-16, 2-15 NSIC) were sitting on a double-digit lead in the final minutes of Friday’s conference game against Winona State (14-7, 10-7 NSIC) on the verge of a memorable upset victory.

When the clock finally struck zero, Minot State had stunned Winona State, 68-53, for its first NSIC win this season inside the Minot State Dome.

The Beavers overcame a 12-point hole to knock off the Warriors.

“We just kept chipping away,” Graupe said. “I’m most proud of the change they have made to keep fighting, which I didn’t see earlier in the year.”

Out of the gates, the Warriors shot lights out (6-for-7, 3-for-3 on 3-pointers) to build up a 15-8 lead.

Giving up costly offensive rebounds allowed Winona State to extend its lead to 24-15 by the end of the first quarter. Seven different Warriors scored in the opening frame while also outrebounding MSU 12-5 in the process.

“We allowed too many points in the first quarter, but 29 points in the last three,” Graupe said. “Our girls did a great job defensively.”

A low-scoring second quarter saw the Beavers hold the Warriors to nine points, and trimmed their deficit down to 33-27.

MSU senior guard Mariah Payne setup the last made bucket of the first half with a no-look pass in the lane to Calli Delsman for a layup.

Haley Hildenbrand led the Beavers with 8 points (4-for-7) in the first half. Allie Pickrain collected 9 points off three 3-pointers for Winona State.

“Usually, we have Mariah (Payne) to lean on,” Hildenbrand said. “They were keying in on her tonight, so we had to find other ways to score. I guess the ball was finding me.”

MSU’s defensive intensity carried over into the third quarter. The open shots Winona State had in the first quarter were now gone.

“We knew they had shooters and their bigs as key players,” MSU guard Bethany Theodore said. “We had to dig down on our individual assignments as well as play the team game. We locked down the players that we needed to.”

In the final minute of the third quarter, MSU took its first lead since being up 4-2 with a Hildenbrand jumper, 44-42.

Lucy Chapman ended the quarter with a bang for MSU, hitting a last-second layup to beat the buzzer. It was her only points of the game.

“We just kept setting goals to chip away at it,” Theodore said. “We were down by 12 at one point and had a goal to get it down to six, which we did. Then, our goal at the end of the third quarter was to get back to even. We ended up two ahead.”

Buzzing on adrenaline, the Beavers exploded with a 16-2 run in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter.

At the end of that run was an offensive rebound and putback by Delsman that drew a three-point play and a spinning fist pump from Graupe on the bench. The Beavers were closing in on their second conference win of the season.

MSU survived a hectic full-court press and made free throws to seal the deal.

Payne, despite being shadowed throughout the contest, finished with a game-high 19 points. Hildenbrand (16), Theodore (12) and Delsman (10) also finished in double figures. Anna Counts grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

MSU held Winona State to 33.9% from the floor, while shooting 41%.

“It was really nice to celebrate this win with the team,” Hildenbrand said. “We needed this one.”

The energized Beavers host Upper Iowa at 3:30 p.m. this afternoon.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.