Valley’s Three-Point Shooting Sinks Wildcats in 83-72 Road Loss

MARSHALL, Mo. – After beginning the road trip with an overtime win at Graceland last week, the Baker men's basketball team fell to Missouri Valley, 83-72 on Wednesday night in Marshall, Mo. to split the season series between the two Heart of America clubs.

Facing their largest halftime deficit of the season, the Wildcats tried to mount a late rally and got within eight in the final two minutes, but would fall for the second time in the past four games after going 9-1 through their first 10 games of league play.

Baker suffered through a red-hot Vikings team that shot over 44 percent from deep and totaled 12 three's in the game, while BU went just 4-for-17 from three-point range. Dylan Smith led the 'Cats in scoring with 15 points and Ty Henry finished a board shy of a double-double after tallying 14 points and nine rebounds. Noah Rigatuso went a perfect 5-for-5 from the line to finish with 13 points.

As a sign of things to come, MVC opened up the game with a three and poured in five more within the game's first seven minutes to take a 24-12 lead. Rigatuso converted a three-point play to get the Wildcats within single digits, but another couple of triples from Valley saw the hosts go up by 14 with just under eight minutes left in the half.

The Wildcats' deficit hovered around double digits throughout the rest of the first half with BU looking to gain some traction heading into halftime. Henry and Keynan Russell teamed up on a couple of buckets and Smith added a 3-pointer, but the Vikings continued to carve things up offensively and went into the break carrying a 52-37 lead.

In the second half, back-to-back triples by Missouri Valley wiped out a mini 9-4 run to start the half for BU as the Vikings kept their double-digit lead intact. Midway through the half, Ahmed Mahgoub was able to find Brock Burling slipping behind the MVC defense for a big dunk that brought the Wildcats within nine at 63-54.

Valley's 12th and final three of the game put them up by 15 points at the 4:22 mark as Baker started its late charge from there with six unanswered points and then another three by Smith making it an eight-point ballgame with just over 90 seconds left to play.

The Wildcats had a chance to make things really interesting, but couldn't convert a three-point play and missed a couple of shots late as the Vikings held on to come away with their fourth straight win at home.

Up next, Baker heads back to friendly confines for a home matchup against Grand View set for Saturday, Jan. 20 at 4 p.m. inside the Collins Center.

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