Park University's women's basketball program dropped their second Heart of America Athletic Conference contest on Saturday on the road in Cedar Rapids, Iowa against Mount Mercy University, 71-53.

Park with their second loss in a row, now is 0-2 in the Heart and has a 2-3 overall record, while the Mustangs bump up to 4-1 on the season with a 2-0 Heart record.

A 4-0 start for Mount Mercy got the Mustangs rolling. Nevaeh Spillman for the Pirates broke into that scoring run with a layup at 8:12. After a pair of free-throws by Mount Mercy, the Pirates' Nadiyah Cooper tied it at 6-6 with back-to-back scores. Makayla Artis' steal led to the transition lay-in for Cooper. It continued to play tight in the first quarter at 9-8 Mustangs, but in the last 4:28 Mount Mercy went on a 10-2 run to close the quarter with two made three-pointers, 19-10.

Mount Mercy went up 12 at 22-10 and Park wouldn't get a score again until 8:26 in the second quarter on a free-throw by Cooper. There would be a bit of a scoring lull for both teams, but Jordan Bianco made a big three-pointer to bring the deficit back to 10 points with 6:52 remaining in the half, 24-14. The gap remained about the same over the second quarter and finally came within 10 points after a jumper from Marina Perdiguero to make it 30-21. In the last 3:26 of the half, Mount Mercy nailed two threes and Bianco wiped out one of those shots with a trey of her own to end the quarter. Still, Mount Mercy clung to a 12-point halftime advantage, 36-24.

In the second half it was very back-and-forth, as Kate Sokolova, Spillman, and Cooper combined for the first six points of the third quarter to make it 40-30 with 6:54 to play. Mount Mercy's three-point shooting was a thorn in Park's side though with back-to-back threes to take a 16-point lead, 46-30 under five minutes. Another pair of threes rained down for the Mustangs taking the lead to 22 with 1:58 left, 55-33. Four made three-pointers for Mount Mercy and no attempts from beyond the arc for Park in the third quarter, led to Mount Mercy's highest scoring period of 21 points.

The Pirates had their best scoring quarter in the 4^th with 18 points, but with 5:27 remaining the Mustangs reached their largest lead of the game of 26 points, 65-39. Ramyiah Logan got eight points in the fourth quarter and the Pirates had their highest percentage from the field in a quarter at 46.7-percent, but the Mustangs were never in jeopardy with a 71-53 win.
For the game, the Mustangs shot 46.3-percent to Park's 32.4-percent. The Pirates only managed three-of-14 from deep, while the Mustangs were 10-of-26 of the same.
Mount Mercy also made the most of their free-throws with 11-of-13, while Park was just at 50-percent, six-of-12.

Both teams were knotted up at 14 turnovers each, but 19 points off of turnovers went to Mount Mercy to only seven for Park.

Cooper led Park with 15 points and nearly went to a double-double mark with nine rebounds. Six of her rebounds were off the offensive glass.

Logan had 10 points and was next in scoring, while Bianco's two three-pointers put her third in scoring with six points.

Perdiguero established herself down low with two blocks, while Bianco and Artis also did some work in the paint with six and five blocks, respectively.

The Pirates will tip-off with Baker University on Wednesday at 5:30pm in Baldwin City, Kan. for their next Heart game. WATCH
Box Score