PSU women lose out on first-round bye

The Emporia State Hornets seized their opportunity Saturday afternoon with a 63-55 win over Pittsburg State at Whetzel Court/John Lance Arena.

Emporia State earned the No. 4 seed and first-round bye in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association postseason tournament by virtue of its win and Northwest Missouri defeating Truman State 72-65 on the final day of the regular season. With the loss, Pitt State dropped to No. 7 and will host Missouri Western at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a play-in game.

The Pitt State-Missouri Western winner will play No. 2 seed Central Missouri on Friday in Kansas City, Mo.

Emporia State benefited from 22 second-chance points (19 offensive boards), 7-14 3-point shooting and a 20-9 edge in free throws made. The Hornets shot 50 percent from deep and 23 percent (11-48) from inside the arc; Emporia State also shot 83.3 percent (20-24) at the line and committed only six turnovers.

Pitt State head coach Lane Lord attributed the loss Saturday to the same issues present in the home loss Wednesday night against Missouri Southern.

“Nineteen offensive rebounds tells the story,” Lord said. “Two games in a row, just a real poor job on the backboards. Again, just like Southern, you’ve got to give their team credit. More physical and they were tougher. Rebounding is effort, personal want-to and obviously, we played good enough defense to win the game. Holding them under 30 percent. We did a great job on (Merissa) Quick. She got 31 on us last time. We did a great job defensively inside but it all comes down to rebounding.”

The Gorillas lost two straight home games after entering the week on a six-game home winning streak.

“We can make every excuse in the book,” Lord said. “We’ve got a depleted lineup. We’ve got kids out of the game but we’ve won five games with the same kids we’ve got now. There is no excuse. We’re playing tough, we’re playing hard, we’re competing. It’s just that one little area that gets you and offensively, we’re struggling right now the last games for some odd reason.”

Playing in her final regular season home game, Pitt State senior Drew Roberts alone kept Pitt State close in the first half with her 11 points on 5-8 shooting. Her mid-range pull-up jumpers were clicking and her 5-8 performance (62.5 percent) was much better than the rest of the Gorillas, who shot a combined 5-25 (20 percent) in the first 20 minutes.

Emporia State took a 27-26 halftime lead on an old-fashioned three-point play late in the half by reserve Sarah Wood, her first three points of the game.

Wood’s old-fashioned three-point play would be a harbinger of things to come in the second half, as Wood and Desiree Wylie, scoreless in the first half, combined for 21 bench points, 18 after halftime.

Both players ended in double figures — Wood 11 points, Wylie 10. Wood led the Hornets with 5-5 shooting at the line.

“I thought Desiree Wylie probably had her best game,” Lord said. “They really went at us in the post, I think it was Lizzy there at the end, did a nice job making shots. That was a nice adjustment by them.”

Wood and Wylie helped make up for tough shooting nights from Merissa Quick (1-11) and Laura Patrick (5-20). Quick and Jocelyn Cummings both fouled out; Quick scored 27 less points Saturday than in the earlier meeting.

Patrick led Emporia State (17-8, 12-5 MIAA) with 14 points and Rachel Hanf added 12 points, five rebounds and five assists.

The Hornets closed out their regular season with victories over rivals Washburn and Pitt State.

Lizzy Jeronimus led Pitt State with 16 points, 11 rebounds and Roberts finished with 13 on 6-14 shooting. Lauren Brown added four points, 11 rebounds and Brigit Hesser had eight points, four rebounds and two assists.

Roberts entered the day with 1,026 career points and her 13 Saturday moved her into 13th all-time, passing Megan Reid (1,028) and Shelley Tanking (1,034). No. 12 needs three points to move into the No. 12 spot on the scoring chart.

Jeronimus finished with 16 points Saturday and fell only five points short of 1,000 career points in career game No. 59. Jeronimus came out for a brief spell after a nasty collision around the basket; however, she finished the game with 11 of her points coming in the final 20 minutes.

Pitt State turns around quickly with its third straight home game.

“Time will tell,” Lord said. “In three days, we’ll find out. Losing’s not much fun. I hate it, they hate it, so we’ll see how we respond.”

In other MIAA games Saturday, Missouri Western defeated Southwest Baptist 71-64, Missouri Southern defeated Central Oklahoma 63-59 and Washburn defeated Central Missouri 63-59 to win the MIAA title outright.