WORTHINGTON -- The Minnesota West women's basketball team won its season-opening game with a convincing 82-54 victory over Little Priest Tribal College Wednesday night. However, the Warriors got the best of the Bluejays in the men's game, 102-89.

WomenIt can sometimes take weeks for a freshman to feel comfortable making the transition to the college basketball game.

For Andrea Hinkeldey, she needed all of seven seconds -- the exact time it took the Lady Jay freshman to score her first collegiate basket.

"I think it's easy to be comfortable around my teammates because I know they have my back and if I need help, they are going to get open and be there for me," Hinkeldey said. "Just being able to know that my teammates are there for me makes it easier to be comfortable. You don't think as much, you just go with the flow and do what you know how to do."

Before her first collegiate game, Hinkeldey said she was nervous. It didn't show as she finished with a game-high 20 points and 12 rebounds in the victory.

"Before the game, I was in the locker room and I was sweating. I couldn't stop sweating I was so nervous," she said. "I kept looking at everybody and asking them if they were nervous. After warm-ups we went in with like seven minutes left and my nerves were gone. But before that, I was crazy nervous, worse than in basketball in high school."

The Lady Jays started out strong and led 22-10 after the first quarter as the combination of Hinkeldey and Tanner Gunnink gave MW an early advantage. A pair of jumpers by Ashlynn Wabeke (18 points) late in the second quarter gave the Lady Jays a 45-21 lead at halftime.

"I would say for our first time out, I'm extremely pleased," MW head coach Rosalie Hayenga-Hostikka said. "I just told them, I was looking here, trying to find something I could complain about after Game 1. I just thought we did a great job."

MW used an 11-0 run to increase the lead to 34 points in the fourth quarter and closed out the victory.

"I think we played really good," Hinkeldey said. "I think that coming out for our first game, we definitely showed a lot of people what we have. Everything was clicking really well. If we can do that, there's not going to be many teams that can stop it."