Men’s Basketball Bounces Back with Tough Win over Culver-Stockton, 71-63

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – After falling for just the second time in Heart of America play on Wednesday, the Baker men's basketball team responded with an impressive 71-63 victory over Culver-Stockton on Saturday in the Collins Center.

In a matchup that featured two of the Heart's top-five teams, BU used a big half from Ty Henry to take a seven-point lead into halftime before holding off a late C-SC run to give Baker its 10th conference win of the season.

Noah Rigatuso, who had four points at halftime, followed Henry's big first half with a terrific second half that saw the junior forward finish with a game-high 21 points. Henry and Ahmed Mahgoub joined Rigatuso in double figures with Mahgoub posting 17 points and seven rebounds, while Henry had 14 points and six boards.

Baker opened up to take a quick lead early on with a Rigatuso bucket putting them ahead by five before C-SC would eventually draw things even at 10-10 through the game's first six minutes of action.

After a Culver-Stockton 3-pointer put the visitors up by five, BU countered to retake the lead with an 11-2 run fueled by a couple of shots from Henry, including one from behind the three-point arc. Henry closed out the first half with five straight points with teammate Dylan Smith setting up both of his baskets.

Culver-Stockton got a last-second layup to fall before the halftime score settled at 35-28 in favor of Baker.

Rigatuso went to work early in the second half, putting up 10 consecutive points for BU with a couple of three-point plays sparking his hot stretch. He drained his only three of the game and followed up with an old-fashioned three-point play a little later to push Baker's lead out to 47-34.

With Baker taking a 17-point lead at the 13:13 mark, Culver-Stockton started to work its way back with eight minutes left to play. A 12-4 run brought C-SC within single digits and six straight points by guard CaRondis Harris-Anderson cut Baker's lead to just 69-63 with over a minute remaining in the game.

BU held on defensively down the stretch though and used an offensive rebound off a free throw to seal the game at 71-63.

With Baker improving to 10-2 in conference play, the Heart's top-two teams will square off against each other next week as BU heads out for its first road trip of 2024 to take on a Graceland side that lost its first league game on Saturday. Tip-off is set for Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Lamoni, Iowa.

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