Hempfield grad Burns sets Point Park 3-pointer mark but wants to be known as all-around player

With a dart from the right wing, Michelle Burns watched 3-pointer No. 202 of her college career splash through the net.

She might have been smiling, but nobody could tell because the Point Park senior guard was wearing a face mask — a sign of the times.

Her teammates’ mouths and noses also were covered, but Burns knew they were happy for her.

An impromptu huddle of hugs proved that.

“They came over and congratulated me when I got the record,” said Burns, a Hempfield graduate. “I have great teammates and a great support system here, and it’s genuine. You don’t always see that when someone breaks a record.”

Burns made 5 of 12 shots from behind the arc a week ago in a 78-74 home loss to Ohio Christian, giving her 202 3-pointers for her career and moving her past former teammate Tyra James, who made 201 3s from 2016-20.

The highlight joined dozens of others on a list Burns began building when she stepped onto campus as a star-in-the-making four years ago. She has started 77 of the 86 games and has scored 1,261 points (14.7 a game).

Burns, known as “Mitch,” now holds three program records for 3-point prowess. She also is the Pioneers’ leader in single-season and single-game 3s with 81 and nine, respectively.

She is averaging 23.3 points and five assists for Point Park (1-2) and is the 10th-leading scorer in NAIA Division I.

“My career has been a blessing,” she said. “It has been a wonderful time here. I don’t know if could have gone any better. The coaches had been great, and so have my teammates.”

Burns had 29 points in the record-breaking game but probably will remember that night more for a loss. She appreciates making history, but she stews over defeats.

“It wasn’t ideal to do it on a loss,” she said. “But we know how fortunate we are just to be playing.”

It’s not a stretch to say Burns has become the face of the program. When River States Conference opponents think of Point Park, they think of Burns.

“She is a reminder that there are still amazing people out there in our society,” Point Park coach Tony Grenek said. “I couldn’t ask for a better human being to coach and to represent our university. She’s a straight-A student, great player, the president of our SAAC committee, tutors other students and is the hardest worker on the team. She’s the total package of what a coach wants in a student-athlete.”

Ideal and covid-19 rarely are mentioned in the same sentence. Each game Point Park gets to play has an undertow.

It’s any port in a storm for college teams fortunate enough to play in 2021.

“We take it day by day,” Burns said. “When we hit that dry spell and everything was locked down, it was tough getting everybody back in shape. There is no shape like basketball shape. It was like starting a new season over again.”

Point Park went nearly two months between games because its schedule was mangled by covid postponements.

The Pioneers played Nov. 8 and Nov. 15, but had to shut down when Gov. Tom Wolf closed gyms as part of a three-week effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

They are scheduled to host Bryant & Stratton-Buffalo on Tuesday night.

“It was killing me,” Burns said. “I couldn’t find anywhere to shoot. High school gyms also were closed. I used to go to Hempfield and shoot with coach (Bill) Swan, but I couldn’t do that. I just ran and lifted.”

Burns said wearing a mask in practice and last week’s game has been an adjustment.

“It’s not that bad,” she said. “The refs were lenient as far as letting us stop to take a few breaths. A lot of us put our masks down past our nose.”

While 3-point records are nice, the 5-foot-4 Burns said she would like to be known more for being a complete player.

“I love to shoot 3s, and I would do it every time down the floor if I could,” said Burns, who has attempted 576 shots from deep in her career and has made 35% of them. “But honestly, I don’t want to say they define me as a player. I still want to be an all-around player, and I still have things to work on.”

When asked if Burns could be a record-breaking type of player, Grenek did not hesitate.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Kids like her deserve to be record breakers. She’s always the first in the gym and the last to leave. If every student at Point Park University were like her, we would be in comparison to Harvard or Yale. She is that great a kid.”

With college athletes granted an extra year of eligibility because of coronavirus shutdowns, Burns is considering playing one more year while chasing a master’s degree.

An economics and finance major, Burns recently completed an all-virtual internship with Pfizer, the pharmaceutical corporation producing a vaccine for covid-19. People have had plenty of questions for Burns, but she doesn’t have a lot of answers because she worked in the benefits department.

“I tell my friends, yes, I helped make the vaccine as an intern,” Burns joked. “I have to break them the news that I didn’t work in a lab. I worked with budgets and helped people get benefits. I loved it.”

And Point Park has loved watching Burns play.