Box Score Kearney, Neb. – Senior post Kyle Gafford scored 19 points and the Pittsburg State women's basketball team closed on an 18-6 run to rally past Nebraska-Kearney, 65-58, Monday evening at the Health & Sports Center.
Pitt improves to 11-3 (5-3) while the Lopers falling to 6-7 (2-5).
In game that was tied 26 all at the half, UNK outscored Pit 18-13 in the third quarter to build its biggest lead of the night. Grand Island sophomore guard
McKenzie Brown responded to a PSU triple with one of her own, making it 44-39 heading into the final 10 minutes.
Things seemed to be going the Lopers way after Trenton senior guard
Laramey Becker hit a scoop shot in the lane, making it 52-47 with 6:06 to play. Both Becker and Pitt guard Mikaela Burgess, their teams' respective leading scorers on the season, were limited to eight points tonight.
A strong free throw shooting team coming in, Pitt lived up to its reputation by going 16 of 16 at the line in the final quarter. Outscoring UNK 26-14, the Gorillas moved ahead for good after Burgess made two freebies with 3:34 left.
After a steal by Burgess, Gafford made her seventh and final shot of the night, making it 57-54. UNK had three cracks at tying the game in the final minute but Brown missed two threes and Becker one. The Lopers ended the night 4 of 18 (22.2%) from behind the arc.
"Defensively, for three and a half quarters, we played fairly well. I thought we defended their dribble drive motion really well but their post players are a handful," said UNK head coach
Carrie Hofstetter. "Late, I thought we let some shots happen that we hadn't allowed in the first three quarters. We didn't get those stops."
Shooting 39.6% (21 of 53) from the field, Pitt was 18 of 20 at the line and scored 30 of its points in the paint. Besides Gafford, post Cathy Brugman had 10 points, three rebounds and three assists with guard Paige Lungwitz (10) doubling her season scoring average.
Brown (14) and Kansas senior post
Bri Starks (12) led UNK in scoring with Dannebrog reserve guard
Courtney Aitken tying a season-high with six points. Also off the bench, Holdrege freshman point guard
Jenna Gillespie had seven rebounds (six defensive).
Starks led UNK in this area with nine, tying her season-high. She was 6 of 8 from the field and had one assist in 24 minutes.
The Lopers are at Lincoln Thursday night and Lindenwood Saturday afternoon.
