Joplin, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern women's basketball team took No. 19 Pittsburg State to the wire today, but fell 62-61 to the Gorillas in front of a huge crowd on Senior Day at Robert Corn Court inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. 

The Lions (17-11, 11-11 MIAA) will host a first-round MIAA Tournament play-in game on Monday night at 5:30 pm inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. Southern earns the No. 6 seed in the MIAA Tournament and will play host to the No. 11 seed Northeastern State. The Lions defeated NSU 62-55 in the only meeting with the RiverHawks this season. 

Southern was led offensively by Deb Holcomb as the junior scored 24 points and added eight rebounds, going 8-15 from the field and a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. Sharese Jones scored 11 points, while Kayla Kivinski had nine points off the bench. 

PSU (24-4, 18-4 MIAA) had three score in double-figures with 24 points from Kylie Gafford. 

The Lions trailed by as many as six in the first quarter, but a 4-0 run from Southern, capped off by a layup from Kivinski at the buzzer made the score 16-14, PSU at the end of the quarter. 

A layup from Holcomb just 11 seconds into the second quarter tied the game at 16, but Pitt opened up an eight-point lead (26-18) with 6:44 to go in the half, A pair of free throws from Dru Clark with 1:38 left in the quarter cut the lead to three, but a jumper from Gafford with 58 seconds left made the halftime score 34-29. 

The Lions took their first lead since the game's first bucket after a three from Jenson Maydew made the score 37-36 with 6:57 to go in the third. After Pitt had pushed the lead back to seven, the Lions worked the deficit to just two as the quarter ended. 

Southern took the lead four more times in the fourth quarter, the last time at 61-59 after a layup from Clark with 2:05 to go. Pitt, however tied the game at 61 with a minute to go and the ensuing free throw was good as the Gorillas hung on to win. 

Southern  shot 51 percent from the field and 41 percent from long-range. The Lions made 86 percent of their free throws. Southern held Pitt to just 15 rebounds in the game, holding a 26-15 advantage, including 8-2 on the offensive boards, where the Lions scored 10 second chance points. Where the Lions suffered, however, was turnovers, as Pitt scored 25 points off of 16 Lions turnovers. 

Southern will be back in action on Monday night as the Lions play host to Northeastern State. Tip off from the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center is slated for 5:30 pm.