DULUTH, Minn. — Sophomore guard Grace Pyle scored a career high 30 points, including 23 in the first half, to lead the Pittsburg State University women's basketball team to a 74-54 victory over the University of Nebraska-Kearney in the first round of the NCAA Division II National Tournament Friday (Mar. 10).
 
The victory sends the No. 7 seed Gorillas (23-7) into the Central Region semifinals Saturday (Mar. 11). Pitt State will face MIAA rival Missouri Southern State University for a fourth time on the season. The No. 3 seed Lady Lions posted a 75-74 come-from-behind win over sixth-seeded Augustana University earlier Friday at Romano Gymnasium.
 
Pyle, who made 12 of 19 shots from the floor, accounted for Pitt State's first 16 points of the game. She hit four of her six 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the contest. Pyle hit back-to-back 3's to break an 8-8 tie. She added a transition layup to extend the Gorillas lead to 16-8 with 5:05 to play in the opening stanza.
 
Pitt State extended its lead to 23 points, 38-15, on a Pyle 3-pointer with 2:11 to play in the second quarter. After taking a 40-21 lead to the break, the Gorillas further pushed their margin to 24 points, 57-33, on a pair of free throws by Harper Schreiner with 2:51 left in the third period.
 
UNK (28-5), which posted a pair of wins over the Gorillas earlier this season while claiming the 2022-23 MIAA regular season title, twice closed to within 14 points of Pitt State in the fourth quarter, but Pitt State countered with a 12-2 run to put the game out of reach.
 
Karenna Gerber added 15 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots to go with Pyle's game high scoring total. Tristen Gegg added nine points and, in doing so, became just the third player in Pitt State history to eclipse the 2,000-point scoring threshold.
 
Saturday's regional semifinal game against MSSU (28-6) will start at 5 p.m. (CST). Pitt State swept a pair of regular season games against the Lady Lions, but MSSU bounced the Gorillas from the MIAA Postseason Tournament, 75-61, in the quarterfinals at Kansas City, Mo. The Lady Lions went on to claim the conference tournament crown; and MSSU enters Saturday's action on a seven-game winning streak.