KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Pittsburg State Head Women's Basketball Coach Lane Lord was named the MIAA Coach of the Year and each of the team's five starters earned All-MIAA honors, the league announced today (Tuesday, Feb. 28).
 
Lord earned MIAA Coach of the Year honors for the fifth time in his 10 seasons at the helm of the Pitt State program. He was also named the Coach or Co-Coach of the Year in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2016. This season Lord guided the Gorillas to only the third MIAA title in program history and the first outright title since the 1991-92 season.
 
Junior guard Mikaela Burgess earned her second All-MIAA first-team honor. Senior guard Hadyn Herlocker was named to the All-MIAA third team, her second All-MIAA honor, as she earned honorable mention recognition last season. Senior guard Paige Lungwitz was named to the All-Defensive team, as well as earning Honorable Mention recognition. Sophomore Shelby Lopez and Madison Northcutt also received Honorable Mention nods.
 
Burgess leads the Gorillas with 17.4 ppg. She leads the MIAA with 82 threes made and a .382 three-point shooting percentage. She has led the team in scoring in 13 games on the season and has 11 20-point scoring games. Burgess scored her 1,000^th career point on December 1. She now has 1,375 career points and is No. 10 on the all-time scoring list.
 
Herlocker leads the MIAA and is in the top 10 in the nation for assists and is second in the MIAA for assist/turnover ratio. She averages 5.5 assists per game this season and set the single game record for assists with 13 against Lincoln on December 10. She has tied the school single season record for assists with 157, which is more than she had in 35 games last season. She also leads the Gorillas with 55 steals on the season. She averages 7.6 points per game.
 
Lungwitz averages 8.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per games, but her real affect on the team is seen in her defense. Lungwitz is tasked with guarding opponents' best players and hold most under their scoring average. She is an 81 percent shooter from the foul line and has made 30 threes on the season.
 
Lopez is second on the team with 62 threes made. She averages 9.3 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. She shoots .385 from long range. She has led the team in scoring four times on the season and has scored in double figures in 13 games, including a career-high 24 against Northwestern Oklahoma.
 
Northcutt has made a significant impact for the Gorillas down low this season. Though undersized for her position, she is a tenacious rebounder and has recorded nine double-doubles on the season, with all but one of those being in MIAA play.  She is close to averaging a double-double for the season with 11.7 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. She shoots .556 from the floor. She has led the team in scoring five times on the season and in rebounding 15 times.

The Gorillas are 24-4 on the season and finished MIAA play with a 15-3 record to take the regular season title outright. The team will open the MIAA Tournament at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. on Friday (March 3) at 6 p.m. as the No. 1 seed against either Lindenwood or Nebraska-Kearney.