Games to remember II

In the Saturday edition, the Sports Desk looked back at some of the best high school games from 2012 and today, it’s time for Pitt State reflection.

Pittsburg State men vs. Central Missouri BKB (Mar. 2)

The Pitt State Gorillas backed into the postseason tournament of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, by losing eight of their final 13 games.

However, in the first round of the MIAA Tournament, Pitt State came out firing with the first five points of the game and led by as many as 20 points in the second half en route to a 78-64 win.

“A great win for our program,” Pitt State head coach Kevin Muff said. “A great win for our kids. We beat traditionally one of the best teams in this conference tonight. These guys did a great job and our team in the locker room did a great job of carrying out the gameplan. I thought our defense was extremely good.”
Central Missouri shot 32.7 percent from the floor for the game, including 30.8 percent second half, and committed 13 turnovers leading to 21 points for the opportunistic Gorillas. Pitt State grabbed 29 of its 42 rebounds on defense.

Pitt State forward and Kansas City native JaVon McGee, playing his first game in the famous Municipal Auditorium, put on a show with a game-high 25 points on 11 of 14 shooting, plus four rebounds and two breakaway exclamation point slam dunks.

Eric Ray added 16 points and Rico Pierrevilus 12.

Pitt State men vs. Northwest Missouri BKB (Mar. 3)

In the first round of the MIAA Tournament, Pitt State defeated No. 3 seed Central Missouri, one of the three co-champions, and the next day, Pitt State defeated Northwest Missouri, another co-champion, 56-53 for a spot in the championship game and a shot at the NCAA Tournament.

Marky Nolen helped Pitt State overcome a difficult offensive game with a double-double performance of 18 points and 13 rebounds. Of course, Pitt State played its own standout defense.

“Hard-fought game,” Pitt State head coach Kevin Muff said. “A battle, a lot of swings of momentum, especially from the first 5 minutes of the game where they basically smacked us in the face and it took us a while to wake up and burn a couple time-outs but these guys responded in a very positive way. I’m very proud of how they responded.

“We just weren’t very good offensively tonight. We struggled scoring the ball. Give Northwest credit for their defense. I thought they defended extremely well. On the other end, I thought our defense was as good as it’s been and maybe even better than last night. I thought last night was pretty good but when we needed to make stops and had to make plays, these guys came up big on the defensive end.”

Pitt State lost in the championship game to Washburn but that postseason success may have carried over into a 9-1 start this season.

Pitt State women vs. Central Missouri BKB (Mar. 9)

The Pitt State women enjoyed a historical 2012 season: school records in several categories like most wins and fewest losses.

History seemed to follow the Gorillas around, even to places traditionally unkind to Pitt State.

The Gorillas won their first NCAA Tournament game in school history with a 74-70 win over the Central Missouri Jennies in the first round of the South Central Regional at Lee Arena in Topeka.

Pitt State led 40-21 at halftime but Central Missouri outscored the Gorillas 49-34 after halftime to make Pitt State have to pull it out in the last minute with four consecutive points from Lizzy Jeronimus.

“What a great afternoon for Pittsburg State, for our program,” Pitt State head coach Lane Lord said. “We had to earn every second of it. We played so outstanding in the second half and we were not ready for their press in the second half. That’s my fault and we should have talked about it at halftime. Central Missouri is a talented, talented, talented basketball team. We knew they’d make a run but we didn’t think they’d get it all back in the first 5 minutes of the second half.”

Three players finished in double figures for the Gorillas: Jeronimus a game-high 29 points, Drew Roberts 19 and Brooke Conley 17. Freshman guard Hailey Roderique grabbed a career-high eight rebounds.

Pitt State defeated Central Missouri for the third time in one season.

Pitt State women vs. Emporia State BKB (Mar. 12)

If freshman Lizzy Jeronimus (now a sophomore) ever hit the proverbial freshman wall, she had definitely rebounded by the postseason.

She established a career high with 35 points in the South Central Regional Final, as the Gorillas proceeded from no tournament wins in school history to three and a spot in the Elite Eight in four short days. Jeronimus won Regional MVP as she carried Pitt State to a 79-67 win.

“She’s a great player,” Pitt State head coach Lane Lord said. “She’s made every one of our players in our program better. She still could have done more. She’s going to keep improving but she’s outstanding. She deserves the tournament MVP. She can drive it, she can shoot the 3, she can post you up but I really think she’s a great passer which makes these two little guys (Alexa Bordewick and Drew Roberts) better shooters and they do a good job of getting it to her.”
“It’s obvious the difference was Lizzy Jeronimus,” Emporia State head coach Jory Collins said. “It’s just frustrating. Everybody knows she’s going to go shoot left-hand layups, just duck her shoulder and drive and try and take that away from her and you still can’t do it. She just made play after play for them.”

Topeka native Alexa Bordewick stepped up with 15 points for the Gorillas.

“It’s unbelievable,” Bordewick said. “It’s almost surreal. Pitt State’s never done this well and I don’t think it’s hit any of us quite yet but we’re excited to go to San Antonio and see what we can prove to everyone.”

Pitt State ended its historical season 27-6.

Missouri Southern at Pitt State SB (Apr. 4)

The Pitt State softball team tied a school-record 15-game winning streak with a 9-1 five-inning run-rule victory over rival Missouri Southern at the PSU Softball Complex. Unfortunately for the Gorillas, eight defensive miscues cost them a new record in the second game of the MIAA twinbill.

“We came out swinging a hot bat in the first game and got on their pitcher right away and that makes a big difference,” Pitt State head coach Elizabeth Economon said. . . . “We kind of use it (the streak) as motivation but we don’t directly speak of it. Obviously, they all know what’s going on and you can feel the pressure building. That’s good. It’s nice to have a target on your back for a change here. We don’t like to put a lot of stock in statistics and records but they’re smart kids and they get it. We just went with the same approach, one pitch at a time, one out, one inning.”

In the 9-1 win, Pitt State jumped out with four runs and six hits through six batters — Cheslyn Mitchell single, Tiffany Brown single, Amanda DeCastro double (Mitchell), Kreslyn Ketcham single (Brown), Alex Perez single (DeCastro) and McKenzie Rynard double (Ketcham).

The Gorillas parlayed their 15-game tear into a 29-28 overall record and 11-9 mark in the MIAA.

Northwest Missouri at Pitt State BB (Apr. 22)

It had been four years since the Pitt State baseball team last swept a four-game series against a conference opponent.

The Gorillas finished its four-game sweep with a 5-4 win in the second game of a Sunday doubleheader at Al Ortolani Field. Pitt State plated three runs in the bottom of the eighth for the win.

In the decisive inning, Austin Lastimado hit a RBI single and Luke Bordewick delivered a two-run double.

With that sweep, Pitt State improved to 18-23 overall and 14-18 in the MIAA. The Gorillas had a stretch of 15 losses in 17 games before a six-game winning streak, including their four against Northwest.

“Winning two games down at Bacone was big for us,” Pitt State head coach Steve Bever said. “We needed to feel better. (Missouri) Western was hard on us. Those two wins and coming back. . . . but we can’t take Northwest lightly. They’re a good team. They split with Western and won three out of four from Southwest Baptist.”

Central Oklahoma at Pitt State FB (Sept. 8)

The defending national champions opened at home in style: Anthony Abenoja passed for 296 yards and rushed for a pair of scores (18, 17 yards), Briceton Wilson hurdled Central Oklahoma free safety DeVoris Dozier on a 14-yard touchdown run and the Gorillas won 34-19 in front of 10,754 rabid fans at Carnie Smith Stadium.

Buzz was centered on the black helmets but what turns out more important through hindsight 20/20 was Pitt State unable to put away its opponent until late in the game.

The Gorillas struggled through a scoreless third quarter with only 25 yards of total offense and one bad shotgun snap to Abenoja which resulted in a safety. Central Oklahoma outscored Pitt State 12-10 after halftime.

“You look up and we’re up 7-0,” Pitt State head coach Tim Beck said. “It felt like you were going to get rolling. You were waiting for that to happen and we’ve done that before. . . . Again, we felt like we were going to break it open and we just couldn’t get over the hump. . . . We had a lot of yards at halftime but it didn’t feel like that.

“Offensively, we had too many three-and-outs in the third quarter. It kept those guys out there too long. I think offensively if we’re a little bit more consistent, it will help us defensively.”

That Saturday was the day of the PSU Athletics Hall of Fame enshrinement and the Gorillas honored one of their own that night, assistant coach Larry Garman.
“We gave him a big round of applause after the game and gave him the game ball,” Beck said. “Like I told our players, you’ve got to understand this guy, football’s been his life for 51 years. He’s coached football for 51 years. I’m only 48 and he’s coaching for 51 years. What a great guy, class guy and what he’s done for the city of Pittsburg, Pittsburg High and Pitt State University, we can’t thank him enough.”

Missouri Western at Pitt State FB (Oct. 20)

Homecoming and a showdown between No. 7 Pittsburg State and No. 16 Missouri Western brought a record 11,910 fans into Carnie Smith Stadium.
The Gorillas started out greatly — forcing a punt on Western’s first offensive possession and then scoring the first points of the game on a 6-yard TD pass from Anthony Abenoja to John Brown which capped off a 11-play, 87-yard drive. However, Missouri Western answered with 56 unanswered points en route to a 63-14 win and that record attendance must have been counted early on in the game.

“We’ve got to take a good look at everything and we have to go back to the drawing board,” Pitt State head coach Tim Beck said. “We’ve got a problem and we’ve got to go fix it.”

Western quarterback Travis Partridge threw for 205 yards, four TDs and no interceptions on 8-13 passing in the first half alone and the Griffons averaged 25.6 yards per catch and 38.5 yards per touchdown catch — helped out by Michael Hill for 48 yards, Derek Libby for 64 and Brandon Wright for 35. Additionally, Western defensive lineman David Bass caught a deflected pass and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown.

Brown caught a PSU single-game record 13 passes for 153 yards and one TD.
The 49-point loss went down in PSU history: worst Homecoming loss, worst loss to Western, worst loss of the Tim Beck Era, fourth-worst loss of the modern era (since 1936), worst loss since 2009 (Washburn 55-3), worst home loss since Oct. 31, 1914 (63-0 to Tulsa when Woodrow Wilson was U.S. President) and 10th worst loss in school history (107-0 to the College of Emporia in 1910). The previous worst Homecoming loss was 36-17 to Nebraska-Kearney in 1979 and the previous worst loss to Western was 61-14 in 1983.

Emporia State at Pitt State VB (Nov. 3)

Traditionally, it seems like the Pitt State volleyball team plays its best near the end of the regular season and that held true in 2012 with five straight wins — Emporia State 3-1, Southeastern Oklahoma 3-0, Central Oklahoma 3-2, Missouri Western 3-1 and Missouri Southern 3-0.

The streak began with a home win over then-nationally ranked Emporia State (25-17, 25-15, 24-26, 25-21), traditionally one of the best in the MIAA.
Senior do-everything player Nicole Rockhold led Pitt State with 19 kills, 23 digs and all five of the Gorillas’ service aces.

Paula Okrutna added 13 kills and five blocks (one solo, four assist). Haylee Gregory finished with five block assists and Leah Flynn added four. Flynn also had eight kills.

Becca Pearson and Hayley Hansford, both Pitt State setters, recorded double-doubles: Pearson 26 assists and 13 digs, Hansford 20 assists and 10 digs.
Pitt State finished its season 17-13 overall and 7-10 in the MIAA.

Southwest Minnesota women at Pitt State BKB (Nov. 9)

The Gorillas played the first basketball in the refurbished John Lance Arena against the Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota and opened in style with a 97-51 rout, helped out by a 24-0 scoring run in the second half.

Southwest Minnesota trailed 41-32 at halftime and Pitt State head coach Lane Lord credited the defense as being key after halftime.

“No doubt about it,” Lord said. “Maybe first-game jitters but we really had trouble
rotating in the first half and then finding their shooters, especially in transition. In the second half, we were outstanding not only because they were missing shots but we were there. I thought our kids made a great adjustment at halftime. Our goal was to hold them under 55. We thought we could score 75 because we were getting good possessions when we weren’t turning it over. We met our goal defensively and dominated the first 10 minutes of the second half.”

Depth also proved key — 13 different Gorillas reached the scoring column, four scored in double figures and senior guard Drew Roberts played a team-high 27 minutes. Three of the five starters played less than 20 minutes and sophomore wing Morgan Westhoff led Pitt State with 17 points.

“We’ve got 13 good players,” Lord said. “Morgan (Westhoff) did what we knew she could do this year. She’s a sophomore and she showed us last year how explosive she was offensively. It was neat to see her. She was just outstanding. There was a 3-minute stretch right there, I think she scored 11 points just on her own.

“We know what we’re going to get from Lizzy (Jeronimus), solid play every night. Drew, she turned it over in the first half a lot but in the second half, her statline’s fine — 3-3 from 3, we’ll take that every night. But I was real excited about our bench and our new starter Hailey Roderique was just outstanding, her mental toughness and her defensive prowl. I mean, she’s all over the place on defense.”
Pitt State will enter January with a 7-3 overall record.