The Park University men's basketball program made the most of their road business trip in Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday evening, defeating the home Grand View Vikings 72-62.
Park holds the No. 4 spot in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, while the Vikings are on the outside looking in at No. 9. The Pirates go up to 9-5 in the Heart and 10-8 on the season, while Grand View is down to 5-8 and 7-10 of the same.
Abubakar Kromah followed up on
Christian Bradford's free-throw with Park's first jump shot of the evening to give Park a 3-2 lead. Kromah in his first season at Park has recently been recognized as going over 1,000 points in his collegiate career and he had two previous seasons at Monroe University in the Bronx, N.Y., Kromah's hometown.
Another former Monroe standout and 1,000 point scorer,
Jasigha Barnes splashed a three-pointer to extend the lead to 6-2 with 16:50 in the first half. Both sides had a series of back and forth scoring and the Vikings tied the game at 12:26 at 11-11.
Shawndale Ross made a layup and a pair of free-throws to keep the lead two consecutive possessions and he pushed Park to a 15-13 lead with 11:38 remaining.
Gagi Gvalia,
Raliek Redd, and Kromah would pour it on in the next two minutes to force a Grand View timeout, but not after a 9-0 run for a 22-13 lead at 9:22. Kromah's three-pointer cancelled out a Vikings trey and then a Gvalia lay-in gave Park a double-digit lead at 7:29, 27-16. A three-pointer by the Vikings at 5:23 got the game within eight points, but Redd showed up with a pair of layups to reach a 12-point spread for the Pirates with 4:37 left. A bucket by Bradford, a triple by Barnes, and a pair of free-throws by
Tyler Burrows maintained the 12-point advantage at the half, 40-28.
It stayed even through the first few minutes of the second half, but the Vikings struck Park with a 7-0 run to force a Park timeout at 15:22 with only eight points separating these two teams.
Tristan McRoberts and Gvalia rallied to the occasion with back-to-back makes and Park was back to a double-digit lead at 12:37, 51-40. A 7-2 run by Grand View was capped off by their second and-one of the half, 53-47. The Pirates got worked on getting to the line and were capitalizing on a pair of made free-throws by Redd and Ross. A 5-0 run by Park gave them more breathing room with 6:25 to go at 62-50, and a big three-pointer by Gvalia extended the lead to 13 with 4:30 to go. The lead was safe with Park hitting shots, Gvalia had two more layups, Ross added a bucket, and Redd hit a free-throw to prevent a comeback, 72-62.
The Pirates shot 42.4-percent from the field, while Grand View was at 39.3-percent. Park was four-of-11 from deep, while there was a slight advantage in makes but not in percentage by the Vikings at seven-of-26.
The Pirates went to the line much more than the Vikings at 18-of-25 compared to seven-of-11 by the Vikings.
Park was able to swarm on defense and take care of the ball on offense with only eight turnovers for the game, while the Vikings were at 12. Park turned those turnovers around for 17 points to only seven by Grand View the other way.
Park doubled the second chance points of Grand view and towered over the Vikings in bench points at 40 to 11.
Gvalia came to play with his career-high of 17 points in a game. He also contributed six rebounds and three steals for his team.
Barnes and Ross were next in line with 14 and 12-point nights, while Kromah also hit double-figures with a 10-spot. Redd was close to a 10-point night with nine points in the contest.
No double-doubles last night, but Kromah and Barnes were the work horses with seven rebounds each. No defensive rebounds by Bradford, but four offensive rebounds on the night is nothing to dismiss.
Kromah had a knack for finding the ball with four steals and Barnes was putting his team in position to score with four assists.
The Pirates go on the road again on Saturday, January 18 to matchup with William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa at 4pm.
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