Submitted photo by Allen Batt Minnesota State University - Mankato’s Joey Batt takes the ball at halfcourt during a women’s basketball game at MSU.

MANKATO — It’s no secret to those familiar with New Ulm girls basketball how good Joey Batt is at basketball.

Joey Batt finished her high school career at New Ulm as the city’s all-time leading scorer with 2,301 points. Batt was named to the All-State team, was a finalist for Minnesota Miss Basketball, and was the class of 2019 Minnesota AAU Player of the Year in her senior season.

Now a fifth-year senior at Minnesota State University – Mankato, Batt has continued to pile up the awards and accolades. Batt was named to the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference All-Freshman team for the 2019-2020 season, averaging 9.4 points and 1.7 steals per game, then progressed to the NSIC South Division All-Conference First Team during the shortened 2020-2021 season, also taking home the Defensive Player of the Year after leading the Mavericks in scoring and steals with 13.4 points per game and 3.1 steals per game — the later of which was the eighth-most in the nation.

Batt saw more growth in her third season, again making the All-NSIC First Team and leading the best offense in the Conference with 15.5 points per game while leading the conference in steals with 67. Batt upped her numbers once more in her fourth season, averaging 16.3 points per game and 94 steals, getting named to the Division II Conference Commissioners Association All-Central Region Second Team and her third All-Conference selection.

In her fifth season, Batt is now averaging 18 ppg and 4.4 spg as of Tuesday, reaching 1,570 career points and one steal shy of 300 career steals, surpassing Rhonda House for the most steals in Minnesota State women’s basketball history.

“I think it’s an honor,” Batt said. “My coach has really allowed me to play my style of basketball at MSU. In high school, we were always an up-tempo kind of team, so being able to continue that into college, and her giving me that trust to be myself on the court has allowed me to reach these goals. An then just the teammates that I’ve had, they trust me with the ball, giving me the ball, allowing me to be up and press and applying that defensive pressure. It’s just an honor to look at the milestones that I’ve reached.”

Batt said her time at MSU has allowed her to improve in several areas.

“I definitely think that my decision-making,” Batt said. “High school is a slower pace. And when I got to college I was really small, height-wise, but also muscle-wise. I got in the weight room a lot, I gained a lot of muscle weight. I think that helped me a lot — not just relying on my speed to get me to the basket or to score, or go against the bigger bodies that I face in college. But also just play against them in general to. Body through and get those points and get those feels against them. So definitely getting in the weight room was a big part of it and not just relying on my speed.

“And like I said, my coach trusts me to play this style of game, so my decision making overall — not forcing shots, getting those assists numbers too has also helped me improve my game a lot.”

Batt’s playmaking number have indeed improved along side her scoring and defensive prowess, going from 1.6 assists per game her freshman season to over 3 per game now in the past four seasons, peaking at 3.9 per game.

Batt was mostly a pass-first point guard early in her career, but as the seasons progressed, MSU began to rely more and more heavily on her to be their leading scorer. Batt said the transition happened as she became more and more of a leader for her team.

“I definitely think it came a lot as my years went on at MSU,” she said. “My leadership role grew. Right now, being the oldest on the team, I’ve had the most experience with being able to help bring my teammates along with me, some of my younger teammates, and show them the way and push them to get their energy up with my style of play. I think that’s brought me to have more of a, ‘Get that score,’ kind of mentality. And it just brings another threat too. I know I can pass the ball, I know as a point guard I can see the court really well, but also being able to score the ball has made me more of a threat on the court as well.”

Batt says she still has some connections to New Ulm basketball with her younger sister, Hadley, as well as having played with current seniors like Daviney Dreckman, who recently passed 1,000 career points for the Eagles.

Batt said she enjoys seeing how the current team has grown over time.

“Getting to see those girls and how they’ve developed their game and how they’ve grown over the years has always been something to come back and watch and support them.”

Batt said the one thing she wants people to take away from her career is all the hard work that went into it.

“There were some days when I was in high school when the last thing I wanted to do was go to the gym,” she said. “My dad was always there to motivate me, push me to get some shots in, even if was only for like 30 minutes. But the time that you put in goes unnoticed. People may not see you putting that work in, but you’ll feel so much better about yourself and it will grow your game immensely and separate you from the others if you just go in and put that time in daily.”