The Park University men's basketball program had its last regular season home event on Wednesday against Missouri Valley, defeating the Vikings 85-67.
Park moves to a healthy 17-11 and 16-8 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference to lock up the No. 5 seed and was one win away from hosting a Heart Quarterfinal round. The Vikings turn in a 11-16 record at 10-13 in the Heart.
For the Pirates, they return to the Heart Conference Tournament for the second straight season and will travel to No. 4 MidAmerica Nazarene University on Wednesday at 7pm in Olathe, Kan. Park has qualified for post-season play three of the last five seasons and in 2024-25 have the most Heart wins since joining the conference in 2020-21.
Three-point shooting kept Missouri Valley in the first half and helped them come back form an eight-point deficit to tie the game at the 10:49 mark, 21-21. Missouri Valley shot six-of-nine from beyond the arc in the first half and tied Park three times before overtaking Park 31-29 with a three-pointer at 7:24. Under five-minutes a layup by
Jaden Robinson and four made free-throws by
Abubakar Kromah momentarily gave Park a four-point lead. A free-throw and a three by the Vikings would tie the game for a fourth time at 36 with 2:29 left, but the Pirates never relinquished the lead, as
Tristan McRoberts boosted the Pirates with six points on jumpers within the last two minutes and Park led 42-36 at the break.
Park doubled the number of threes that the Vikings shot in the second half with four, and the Vikings went cold from range at 2-of-12, while the Pirates were more efficient at four-of-10. Shooting 53.3-percent from the field in the second half overshadowed the Vikings as well and Park would widen the gap at the 11:27 mark with its first double-digit lead of the game, 58-47. It was pretty sound basketball by the seniors under 10 minutes left, as Robinson sank a pair of free-throws,
Christian Bradford layed in a bucket, and
Jasigha Barnes erupted Breckon Sports Center with back-to-back threes to get the Pirates to a 17-point lead with 7:12 to play, 70-53. This was the finishing blow and Park sailed to an 85-67 victory.
Park shot 58.5-percent from the field, the second time they've gone for 58-percent in a game this season, while Missouri Valley was working on a respectable 39.3-percent night. From behind the arc, the Vikings held the slight advantage at eight-of-21 to six-of-17 for Park.
At the line, both teams shot in the 60s, 11-of-18 for Missouri Valley and 17-of-25 for Park.
Turnovers were in double-digits for both sides, 16 for the Vikings and 14 for Park, which amounted to a six-point differential for the Pirates in points off turnovers.
Park had 10 fastbreak points compared to zero for the Vikings and the Pirates bench contributed 10 more points than Missouri Valley.
Robinson and Barnes gave max effort with 28 points for the forward from New Orleans and 22 points for the Long Island native. Robinson was two rebounds shy of a double-double, while Bradford led the rebounding effort with 11 boards, including three on the offensive glass.
Kromah had nine rebounds and co-led Park with four assists along side Barnes. The rest of the starters each gave three assists on the night.
Robinson and McRoberts were ball hawks with three blocks between them, and all starters except for Robinson recorded a steal.
Shawndale Ross and
Gagi Gvalia were making it happen with seven points each as well.
No. 5 Park will travel to No. 4 MidAmerica Nazarene's home court on Wednesday night in Olathe, Kan. for a 7pm Heart Quarterfinal contest.
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