Wildcats Open Heart Play with 20-Point Victory over Benedictine

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – Backed by a red-hot second half that saw them shoot at a 62-percent clip, the Baker men's basketball team cruised to a 76-56 victory over conference rival Benedictine here Wednesday night inside the Collins Center in the first game of the Heart of America season for both clubs.

The Wildcats followed up a first half that saw their defense hold the Ravens to just 20 points with a 44-point effort out of the BU offense in the second half to run away with things late and pick up Baker's third straight win in the rivalry series.

Quentin Harvey scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Wildcats with 17 of them coming in the second half. Ty Henry and Noah Rigatuso each scored 11 points apiece to join Harvey in double figures with Rigatuso going a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range.

After the first eight minutes of the game saw the score tied at 9-9 in what would be the final time that Baker didn't lead in the contest, the Wildcats began to build up a small cushion over the Ravens with Dylan Smith knocking down all three of his free throws after being fouled on a 3-pointer.

Seeing his first action as a Wildcat, Keynan Russell went to work in the paint for BU, tallying all eight of his points in the game in the final 10 minutes of the first half. The junior from Frisco, Texas muscled in a basket to put Baker on top, 21-14 before scoring four straight points to make it a 15-point lead for BU with just under two minutes in the first half.

In the closing seconds, Henry snapped a string of five straight points by the Ravens after hitting a jumper in the lane to cap the first half score at 32-20 in favor of BU.

Starting things off with a triple, Benedictine scored seven of the first eight points of the second half to cut it to a six-point ballgame before a breakaway layup by Korey Jones on one of his two steals in the game put Baker's lead back out to double digits.

Later, Rigatuso splashed in a three to spark a nice run for BU with Harvey beginning to heat up as well, adding a triple of his own to give the Wildcats a 47-31 lead at the 13:37 mark.

Brock Burling scored on a second-chance opportunity before Harvey knocked down another three and Nick Whittick added a quick layup on a great feed by Burling to see Baker's lead run out to a 22-point margin at 58-36.

With less than nine minutes remaining, Rigatuso tallied his final three of the night in the first of three straight triples by the Wildcats with Henry and Harvey both connecting from deep. Harvey converted an old-fashioned three-point play to make it a 70-53 advantage before Baker finished off its conference-opening win.

After making only one 3-pointer in the first half, Baker drained half of its shots from deep in the second half, going 6-for-12 from behind the arc with Harvey and Rigatuso tallying five of the six triples.

Coming off a year in which he was named to the Heart's All-Defensive Team, Jones swiped four steals for a BU side that forced 18 turnovers overall.

Up next, the Wildcats head out for their first conference road contest with a game at Grand View on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 4 p.m. in Des Moines, Iowa.

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