Photo courtesy of Minnesota State University The Minnesota State Mavericks’ Joey Batt scores on a layup during the NCAA Central Region Tournament Championship game against Southern Nazarene on March 18 at the Sawyer Center in Bethany, Oklahoma.

MANKATO — It was a bit of a full-circle experience for New Ulm’s Joey Batt this past Monday night as her Minnesota State Mavericks shook up the world of DII women’s college basketball.

After stunning No. 1-seeded Southern Nazarene on its home floor with an 80-48 win in the NCAA Central Region Tournament Championship game, the seventh-seeded Mavericks punched their ticket back to the Elite Eight for the first time since the 2008-09 season.

Batt dropped in a game-high 28 points in the win and added five assists and five steals.

That 28-point performance was a common night of basketball for Batt in 2019 as she finished her senior year at New Ulm High School as the school’s all-time leading scorer (2,301).

Early on in her college career, however, the 5-foot-5 guard was never expected to be Minnesota State’s go-to scorer. Now in her fifth and final season with the Mavericks, Batt was in prime form as she turned in arguably her best game of the season in the team’s biggest game of the season so far.

“I thank my teammates a million percent,” Batt said. “They pour that confidence into me. I miss a shot and they tell me, ‘Hey, get that next one. We need you shooting the ball, we need you scoring.’ And also, it’s been a weight off my shoulders knowing that a bunch of different players on the team step up at big times in the game, too. Destinee Bursch, I think she had a quiet 20 points that game. I think she had 23 points against Southern Naz, and usually she doesn’t have a quiet 20-point game. Just seeing her step up in that game, and then just the leadership on this team, it’s nice to not just depend on one person to bring every aspect of the game.”

The Mavericks, 29-5 on the season and the fifth seed in the Elite Eight, will now travel to St. Joseph, Missouri, to take on the fourth-seeded Georgia Southwestern Hurricanes (29-3) at 8:30 p.m. Monday night. The Hurricanes are also the No. 11-ranked team in the country.

Batt averaged 9.4 points per game her freshman season with the Mavericks and 13.4 ppg during her sophomore campaign. She then averaged 15.5 ppg and 16.3 ppg in her third and fourth seasons, respectively, and is currently averaging 16.1 ppg this season.

Batt also was named a 2024 WBCA NCAA DII Women’s Basketball All-American this past Thursday, the first All-American player the Mavericks have had since Heather Johnson (2008-09).

After defeating MSU Moorhead, Southwest Minnesota State and the University of Mary to win the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament, the Mavericks moved on to the NCAA Central Region Tournament at the Sawyer Center in Bethany, Oklahoma, where they defeated three teams seeded ahead of them.

“When we first got seeded, we were like, ‘Oh, a seven seed, pretty low,'” Batt said. “But at the same time, we kind of threw that off of our shoulder and we kind of started having the mentality of — to get to the point that we want to get to, which is a National Championship, we have to play these teams anyway.”

That type of thinking paid off for the Mavericks as they swept through the Central Region Tournament without ever trailing.

The Mavericks first defeated second-seeded Missouri Western 78-58 before topping third-seeded Fort Hays State in the semifinals 78-66.

Then came the 80-48 rout of Southern Nazarene, the No. 10 team in the nation.

“I’ll credit them,” Batt said. “They were an amazing team. Very well-coached. And they haven’t lost on their home court, I think it was, like, in five years. So to obviously go in there and make that statement win was huge for us.

“But also with that, I feel like we just had the mentality of knowing the past two games before the Southern Naz game, we got a really great jumpstart. Our defense was so on point that we frazzled the teams essentially and got those big runs right away in the game, and that happened in the Southern Naz [game], too. So I think we were just really hungry to keep that trend going and looking to keep that going with the Elite Eight, too.”

The Mavericks played Southern Nazarene early in the season in a Regional Crossover Challenge, falling 73-56. The Mavericks also fell to Fort Hays State during the Regional Crossover Challenge 83-67.

Other than those losses coming early in the season, the Mavericks also were playing without Batt, who was out with a broken hand.

This time in the Central Region Tournament, Batt was back and the Mavericks were rolling.

As the Mavericks study up on Georgia Southwestern and travel to Missouri, Batt said the Hurricanes are a well-coached team under head coach Hana Haden, who was named the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year.

But Batt credited Mavericks head coach Emilee Thiesse also and said rebounding will be a key in this Monday’s game.

“I know they’re a really well-coached team …,” Batt said. “So just knowing that, they obviously play hard for their coach, they respect their coach, but that’s vice-versa, same for us. [Coach] Thiesse has poured so much into this program and this team this year, so just going out there, playing for her.

“They’re a pretty good rebounding team, which is something we’ve always focused on. Every practice we have rebounding drills because we’re a little shorter than most DII teams, I feel like, but we’re so long and quick that we rely on our transition a lot and our defense.”

The Hurricanes are led this season by 5-foot-8 junior guard Jashanti Simmons, who is averaging 12.4 ppg and 6.4 rebounds per game. Senior Kayla Langley, 6-foot-3, is averaging 10.5 ppg and 6.4 rpg.

Bursch, 5-foot-10, and Batt are both averaging 16.1 ppg for the Mavericks.

The Minnesota State men’s basketball team will also be playing in the Elite Eight on Tuesday. The men’s team clinched that Elite Eight berth this past Tuesday after a buzzer-beating jumper by Eljiah Hazekamp gave the Mavericks a 43-42 home win over Northwest Missouri State in the NCAA Men’s Central Region Tournament title game at Bresnan Arena.

So, what’s it like being a Maverick now?

“It is the best thing ever,” Batt said. “I mean, I couldn’t even imagine this. Especially with the start of the season, breaking my hand, I was like, ‘Oh, it’s off to a great start this year.’ … The resiliency of this team, we have a chemistry that I have never seen before. Throughout my five years here, every year it just keeps getting better. The culture, the determination that we’re building throughout this program is just amazing.

“To see the guys’ success, too, huge credit to them. They are killing it out there. Having the opportunity to go to that game, too, we got back at like 4 and the game was at 7, so getting to see that game and have the excitement and being recognized at halftime. And seeing that community support — they had the second-highest attendance record there that’s ever been in Bresnan Arena.”

The last time the Minnesota State women have been to the Elite Eight came in 2009, but the Mavericks ended that season as National Champions.

Whether this year’s team can have a similar finish remains to be seen.

No amount of doubt has knocked the Mavericks off the tracks so far, however, and they have no intention of stopping their run anytime soon.