Box Score With four seconds left in Saturday's MIAA women's basketball game at Hyland Arena, Pittsburg State put the ball in the hands of one of the best players in the conference.

All-American swing player Lizzy Jeronimus made a layup in the waning seconds of the Gorillas 80-79 win over Lindenwood and ended the Lady Lions six-game home winning streak in the process. The Lady Lions fell to 8-4 and 3-2 in the MIAA, while the Gorillas improved to 8-3, 2-0.

Jeronimus is third in the MIAA with 18.1 points per game. She scored 23 points against the Lady Lions. Lindenwood senior Marissa Lehnig matched Jeronimus and led the Lady Lions with 23 points.

"We talked during the timeout that we knew (Pittsburg State) was going to do that," Lindenwood coach Tony Francis said. "Two possessions before we knew they were going to rub her off that ball screen. We trapped it and had what we wanted but lost some composure and fouled.

"We shot ourselves in the foot today, and don't take anything away from Pittsburg State and their coach, Lane Lord, I hold in high regard. They're a good program. We got out of our funk in the second half and we'll learn we're at the top of the league when we play like we should for 40 minutes."

After winning seven out of eight games between November and December, including a tough road win at Washburn before the break, the Lady Lions trailed the Gorillas by 19 points with 10 minutes 46 seconds left in the game. Francis implored his team to "dig deep" during a timeout, and they started to slowly get back into the game.

The Lady Lions comeback began in earnest when junior Morgan Johnson stole the ball and sank a three-point basket with 5:35 left to cut the Gorillas' lead to 69-61. Freshman Kassidy Gengenbacher assisted on the basket. Johnson was 3 of 4 from three-point range and finished with 16 points. She leads the Lady Lions with 26 three-pointers.

Gengenbacher, who finished with 16 points, made a pair of three-pointers in 30 seconds to cut the deficit to 74-68, and after a steal by Johnson, sophomore Jenny Rocha scored on a fastbreak to make it 74-70 with 3:04 left.  Rocha finished with 13 points and five assists.

Two free throws by Lehnig with 2:49 left made the score 74-72 Gorillas. Gengenbacher tied the game 74-74 with an assist by senior Caroline Bourlioux with 2:30 left. But Jeronimus countered with a pair of free throws.

Lehnig was 7 of 8 from the free-throw line and she sank a pair with 34 seconds left. After Jeronimus scored, Lehnig was back at the charity stripe with a second left and two shots to tie the game. She sank the first one, but her second bounced off of the rim.

"I watched the release, she took a confident shot," Francis said. "She did a great job."

It doesn't get any easier for the Lady Lions who host unbeaten Emporia State (13-0) Monday at 5:30 p.m. Emporia State is ranked third in Division II.