PITTSBURG, Kan. – Minnesota State (25-8, 18-4 NSIC) held a 13-point lead at halftime, but top-seeded Pittsburg State (31-3, 18-1 MIAA) pulled off the comeback at home in the NCAA DII Central Region Tournament Semifinal game on Saturday night, as the Gorillas won 94-91. The game was tightly contested the whole way, with 10 ties and nine lead changes in the 40 minutes of play.
 
Senior guard Destinee Bursch left it all on the court in her final game. She scored 37 points on 15-23 shooting with three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Junior Natalie Bremer was also great with 26 points, eight rebounds and three steals. She moved into fourth in all-time scoring in the first quarter, passing Rhonda House with 1,673 career points. Bremer ended the year with the fourth-best scoring season in program history with 641 points in 2024-25.
 
After a quiet first half, senior post for Pitt State, Karenna Gerber, recorded a 27-point-10-rebound double-double on 11-12 shooting from the field. Her massive second half secured the win for the Gorillas and sent the team to the NCAA Central Region Tournament Championship against seven seed Southwest Minnesota State.
 
With the loss, Minnesota State ends the 2024-25 season with a 25-8 record. This year marks the third year in a row that the Mavericks have ended with 25+ wins and also the third consecutive season the team won at least one game in the NCAA Tournament, both of which are new records for the program.
 
Ava Stier won the opening tip for the Mavericks then hit a three on the wing for the first score of the game. Pitt State and Minnesota State traded scores back and forth until Bursch hit a three in the corner to put the Mavericks up 8-4 early. Bremer made her first shot of the game, a pull up from just inside the free throw line, then Gerber scored another bucket to keep it a one-possession game. The Minnesota State defense came up with a tough stop, then Bremer nailed a three from the wing to give the team a seven-point lead.
 
The Gorillas would go on a 7-0 run capped off by a quick corner three from Grace Pyle, but Bremer ended the drought with a jumper, which put her ahead of Rhonda House with 1,635 career points to move into fourth in all-time program scoring. A pair of free throws and a layup gave Pittsburg State the lead, 18-16, but Hannah Herzig knotted up the score again with a two makes at the free throw line. The home team took the lead back with a layup, but Bursch drove in, spun on the block and banked in an and-one layup to put MSU up one. Bursch sunk a three, but back-to-back twos from the Gorillas gave them a one-point lead. A free throw from Herzig sent it the game to its second period, 25-25.
 
Pitt State struck first in the second quarter, but Bursch made a tough layup to keep it tied. Bremer muscled through a lot of contact on her way to the rim, made it and sunk the layup, too, which put the Mavericks up a full possession. A turnover for PSU resulted in a Herzig three, then Bursch used some crafty footwork on the block to free up enough space for a jumper to make it a 10-0 run for Minnesota State which put the team up eight.
 
The run continued with a pull up three from Bremer which gave her a baker's dozen, then Pyle made a jumper for two to end the home scoring drought, but Stier pump-faked and drove inside for another and-one layup for the Maverick offense. A steal from Elisabeth Gadient resulted in a corner three in transition for Bremer to give Minnesota State a 13-point advantage with less than five to go in the first half.
 
Out of a timeout, the Gorillas followed up a pair of Maverick free throws with a couple of scores in transition to cut into their deficit. Pyle made a three to cut the MSU lead to nine, then Bursch made a layup off a fake dribble handoff to solidify the lead back to double digits. A pair of makes at the free throw line from Gadient gave Minnesota State a 54-41 lead headed into the locker room at halftime.
 
MSU shot 53.3% from the field in the first half and made 7-10 from three. The team also made 15 first-half free throws. The Maverick defense held the best shooting team by percentage in Division II to just 43.8% shooting in the first half, including 2-13 from deep.
 
Minnesota State's stars were radiant in the first two quarters. Bursch ended the half with 19 points on 7-9 shooting and a perfect 2-2 from three-point range. Bremer shot 6-10 and 3-4 from beyond the arc in the first half and tallied 17 points. She also led the team with four rebounds in the first 20. Both Herzig and Stier ended the half with six points.
 
Pyle had 11 points in the first half for Pittsburg State. The team's leading scorer, Gerber, was held to just four points in the first half after picking up two quick fouls.
 
The senior forward got to work right away, though, with back-to-back-to-back layups to start the second half to make it a seven-point game, but Bursch drove in for an and-one floater on the baseline for the Mavericks' first points of the quarter. She found Bremer for a turn-around hook shot after a stop on defense, but a late rotation on the other end resulted in an and-one for Gerber. Bremer picked off a Gorilla pass and put the ball through the hoop with some nice touch on the shot, but Gerber made another layup to make it a seven-point game. She made 11 of Pitt State's first 13 points of the second half.
 
Mackenzie Schweim drove made an aggressive drive for a layup in the paint but the Gorillas found the hole in the Minnesota State press for an easy bucket, but Bursch responded with a make inside of her own. Two free throw makes made it a five-point game, but on offense, Bursch drove it in, grabbed her own miss and put it back up for an and-one layup to stave off Pittsburg State. After a PSU layup, Adeline Kent set a little pick for Schweim and she found her for a corner three in response. A pair of free throws from Gerber and a three from Hannah Nilges made it a three-point game quickly, but Bremer made a contested layup on the other end. Harper Schreiner made a layup as time expired to send the game to the fourth quarter a three-point ball game, 73-71.
 
Kent kicked off the fourth quarter with a three in the corner for her first bucket of the game, but the Gorillas responded with a layup on the other end. Nilges tied the game with a three, but Bursch immediately silenced the crowd with a layup to give her a new career-high 29 points. A layup from Maycee James and an and-one from Gerber gave the home team a three-point lead. Bremer made a jumper from the elbow after Herzig drew a charge on defense to cut the Maverick deficit to one and Bursch gave her team the lead back with a similar shot with 6:42 remaining in regulation. The lead switched after a layup from Pyle, then Gerber made back-to-back layups to give PSU a five-point advantage headed into the final media timeout.
 
After another score from Gerber, Herzig made a layup off a nice pass from Bursch to keep it a five-point game. Bremer found Bursch on the block, she spun off her defender and put it up for two more to cut it to three with 3:04 remaining. Those two connected again, as Bursch maneuvered around a Gorilla athlete for two more. After a pair of Pitt State misses at the line, Bremer went up for two, made it, but a charge was called to keep the Gorilla lead at one. Following a steal from Herzig, Bursch drove in and spun through two defenders to give the Mavericks the lead, but PSU quickly scored on the other end to force to swing the lead back to 91-90 for the home team, which forced a timeout call from the away bench with 0:53 on the clock.
 
Gerber went 1-of-2 from the line to make it a two-point lead for PSU with 22 seconds remaining in regulation. Out of a timeout, Bremer got fouled, missed the first free throw but made the second. After another break, the Gorillas' ball movement killed the clock until there were 0.3 seconds left in the game. The Mavericks put up a shot, but the ball fell short. Pittsburg State snuck into the Central Region Championship with a 94-91 win at home.
 
MSU made 48.5% of its field goal attempts (32-66 FG), half of its threes (9-18 3P) and made 18-23 from the charity stripe in its final game of the 2024-25 season. 13 steals for the Maverick defense resulted in 25 points the other way.
 
Bursch ended with a career-high 37 points as she shot 15-23 from the field, good for a 65% field goal percentage. She led the team with three assists, grabbed three boards and had two steals on defense. Bremer scored 26 points and led MSU with eight rebounds and three steals. Herzig ended with eight points.
 
Pitt State shot 18-26 from the field in the second half, good for a 69.2% field goal percentage in the second 20 minutes. Despite the great shooting performance, the team shot just 4-21 from deep (19% 3P) in the win. The Gorillas dominated inside, scoring 50 points in the paint. 29 points for PSU were scored by bench players.
 
Gerber ended with 27 points and 10 rebounds on 11-12 shooting from the field. On defense, the senior post had two steals and a block. Pyle ended with 14 points despite a tough shooting performance. Schreiner ended with eight points, seven rebounds and eight assists.