Basketball

The Pittsburg State University women’s team posted an 85-82 win over Southwest Minnesota State University in the Central Regional Tournament championship. They’re now one of eight teams remaining in Division II and will play in the Elite Eight in Pittsburgh, PA, starting on March 24.

The Gorillas had to come from behind to get the win, trailing Minnesota State University-Mankato by 15 points at halftime. It took the entire third quarter and first few minutes of the fourth before PSU took the lead, and they had to battle until the last second to keep it.

Pittsburg State University women’s basketball will continue its postseason run after taking down Harding in the quarterfinals of the Central Regional Tournament. The Gorillas, who are the number one seed and host of the tournament, are now 30-3 on the season.

Mark Stewart reached the pinnacle of football officiating in February, working Super Bowl 59 as a line judge. That same month, he was also officiating high school basketball games in southeast Kansas.

PSU women’s basketball was selected in the Coach’s poll released Tuesday to finish first this upcoming season. The Media poll has the team finishing second. While PSU men’s basketball was selected to finish second in the Media poll. In the Coaches' poll, the Gorillas were voted to finish third.

The Lady Gorillas jumped out to a 15 to 7 first-quarter lead and never trailed. Macie Mays led the team with 17 points, while Grace Pyle had 15 and Karenna Gerber added 10. Pittsburg State women’s basketball drew 22 foul shots, making 19. In comparison, Fort Hays had only 14 shots from the charity stripe, making 11.

The Pittsburg State women's basketball team claimed their 20th win of the season, 85-57 against Nebraska-Kearney from the Health & Sports Center on Saturday, February 24.

The last ten games between the Lady Gorillas and Lady Lions are even at 5-5. Historically, Pittsburg State women’s basketball has dominated Missouri Southern earning a record of 21 and 10. At one point PSU WBB defeated MSSU WBB in seven straight games from January of 2016 to February of 2019.

UCM, dropped its second straight game in three days after an 8-0 start to the year, got a game-high 29 points from Olivia Nelson.

While the Lady Gorillas expect to be in the upper tier of MIAA WBB teams they have their work cut out for them with Northwest Missouri (7-0), Central Missouri (7-0), and Fort Hays (6-0) State undefeated.