The Park University men's basketball program was in Breckon Sports Center on Wednesday to begin Heart of America Athletic Conference play against Baker University. The Pirates showed up ready to play and put up their second most points this season, defeating the Wildcats 97-91.

Park improves to 3-5 on the year and 1-0 in conference play is a great start as well. The Wildcats drop to 2-5 and 1-1 in the Heart. 

This was a close game out of the gate, but the Pirates put together a nice 12-3 run from 16:55 to 12:01 that gave them a five-point lead, 17-12. The Pirates were able to continue to build their lead and Clarence King got Park to a nine-point advantage at the 7:32 mark with a triple, 25-16. More back and forth went around, but then Otavio Armani showed off his range with a three for the 10-point lead, 30-20. Park was able to keep Baker at an arm's length the rest of the half and Tyler Burrows took away a last second steal and threw down a dunk as time expired in the half, 47-33. 

Armani had another early three in the second half and King drew a foul on a three-point attempt for another three-point play that put Park up 16, 56-40. This is where it would stay for the most part as Park's Armani hit another trey at the 12:17 mark, which was answered by Baker to come within 12 points, 69-57. A 5-0 directly after for Baker gave the Wildcats some hope with a seven-point game with 10:30 on the clock, but King brought the lead back to double-digits, 72-62. Inside five minutes left, buckets by Amaire Perkins and King put the Pirates back on top 89-74 and warded off another Baker rally. It was a good thing too because the Wildcats had one final push with an 8-0 run from 1:07 to 30 seconds on the clock to make it a five-point game. Park would sink their free-throws when it counted though and earned the 97-91 victory. 

 Park shot 34-percent for the game compared to 48-percent for the Wildcats. Baker made 14 three-pointers in the game, but were only 15-of-25 from the charity stripe. Park had a good night of shooting behind the arc at eight-of-23 and also had 10 misses a the line at 27-of-37. 

Baker had five more turnovers with 16 than Park and the Pirates turned that around for 21 points compared to 17 for Baker. 

12 fastbreak points for the Pirates helped them in transition, while no fastbreak points were made by Baker. 

King was the scoring leader with 28 points, followed by Armani with 22 points. King was 11-of-11 from the line with a three-of-six night from deep. He also helped the Pirates with six assists, while Armani co-led with seven rebounds and led Park with four made three-pointers.

Mannie Odo had seven rebounds on the night with three on the offensive side of things. He had 10 points on the night as well.

Amaire Perkins spread the ball around with four assists and was just under double-figures with eight points, while Burrows was at 12 points for the night, and had a balanced night with three assists, two steals, and a block.

Good production from Tristan McRoberts and Shawndale Ross with seven points apiece from the bench.

The Pirates face Central Methodist University on Saturday, November 22 at 2pm. WATCH
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