KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Pittsburg State men's basketball team is headed to the MIAA Tournament Championship game. The Gorillas earned their spot in the final game with a 65-58 win over regular season champions Northwest Missouri.
The Gorillas will take on Missouri Southern at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 8. The game will be televised live by the MIAA Network. Complete listing information is available at the link on the right. As always fans can also listen to the game live on KKOW AM 860 or kkowradio.com. The live video stream will also be available from
Stretch Internet.
Pitt State Athletics will have 100 tickets available to PSU students with their student ID beginning at 11:30 a.m. Student can pick these up at the table in the main Municipal Auditorium lobby (off 13th Street.)
Pittsburg State played tremendous defense, holding one of the MIAA's top three-point shooting teams to 28 percent (5-for-18) from long range. Conversely, the Gorillas hit seven of 11 threes (.636), the best three-point shooting percentage of the season, and 50 percent overall. PSU also outrebounded the Bearcats by 10, 30-20.
There were eight ties and seven lead changes in the game, seven of those ties came in a thrilling second half, including six in the first 10 minutes of the half. Pitt State finally broke the seventh tie with a Dakota Jones layup with 10:54 to go. The Gorillas to their largest lead of the game to that point on a three by Trey Starks, 48-43.
The Bearcats kept coming back at the Gorillas, but could not tie or take the lead until a Conner Crooker three with 4:21 remaining tied the game for the final time at 54-54. The game stayed knotted there for the next two minutes until Starks hit the Gorillas go ahead three late in the shot clock. Trevor Gregory added a layup a minute later to put Pitt State up 59-54 with 1:32 to go. MIAA Freshman of the Year Justin Pitts scored a couple layups for the Bearcats, but Pitt State answered with free throws. Starks, Connor Kjer and Josiah Gustafson combined for a perfect 6-for-6 performance from the charity stripe in the last minute of the game to ensure the Gorilla victory.
Each team led for about 10 minutes in the first half. Pitt State held the lead for most of the first 10 minutes. A layup by Pitts tied the game for the first time, 13-13, with just under 10 minutes to go in the half. The Bearcats to their first lead since the opening 90 seconds on free throws by Crooker at the 9:38 mark. Northwest Missouri was able to build as much as a five point lead, but Pitt State worked to close the gap and trailed by only two, 28-26, at the half.
As is typical for the Gorillas, scoring was spread fairly evenly. Starks came off the bench to lead the team with 13 points. Gustafson and Javis Flynn each scored 11. Flynn also led the team with seven rebounds, four assists and four steals. Connor Kjer added 10 points, Gregory, eight, Jones, six, Lamine Dieng, four, and Devon Branch, two.
Northwest's Pitts led all scoreres with 23 points, while Crooker added 15.
Pitt State's last visit to the MIAA Championship game was in 2012. The team came into the tournament as the No. 7 seed, defeating Central Missouri and Northwest Missouri before facing top seeded Washburn in the Championship game. This will be Pitt State's fourth time in the MIAA Tournament Championship game and the first time facing rival Missouri Southern in that game.
