Electric First Half Fuels Baker's 80-67 Blowout over (RV) Central Methodist

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – Connecting on eight threes en route to a 58-point first half, Baker men's basketball put together an offensive clinic to hand (RV) Central Methodist an 80-67 beatdown on Wednesday night in front of a loud Collins Center.

For the second time this season, junior guard Braden Griffiths tied the school record with seven 3-pointers in the game, going a perfect 7-for-7 on his first seven shots and finishing with a game-high 21 points. Griffiths, who is in his fifth season since joining the Wildcats from Frisco, Texas, hit seven threes against Missouri Valley on Nov. 21 for his first time tying the program's single-game record which has now been marked on seven separate occasions.

The Wildcats shot over 65 percent from the floor and missed just five shots inside the arc, while going 8-for-14 from three in the first half. Quentin Harvey and Ty Henry added in 17 points apiece, while Noah Rigatuso secured his fifth double-double of the year with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Harvey came out with a bang for BU to open things up, accounting for all 12 of the Wildcats' first points of the game with the junior forward sinking three triples, including a rare four-point play on Baker's opening possession.

Another and-1 situation from Harvey stretched the Wildcats' lead out to 21-9 before a CMU three cut it to single digits a little bit later. Rigatuso got a jumper to fall to make it a 14-point advantage for BU with just under eight minutes left in the first half.

Then, Griffiths went to work on his historic night, draining his first three of the game to push Baker's lead out to 21 points before adding another three just a minute later.

Griffiths connected on three more triples in the final four minutes of the first half to balloon the Wildcats' lead all the way to the 30-point mark as BU would take a huge 58-28 lead at the break.

In the second half, Henry scored a few early points for BU and countered a set of CMU 3-pointers with a triple of his own to keep it a healthy 20-point lead for the hosts. Back-to-back threes by Griffiths made it 73-49 with 11:33 left in the game.

With the game seemingly well in-hand, Baker started to cool off a little bit as it coasted through the final 10 minutes and made sure to halt any traction from a CMU team that started to tally some threes of their own.

A layup by Rigatuso closed out the scoring for BU with just under two minutes left and the Eagles would get within a respectable 13-point margin as the Wildcats opened up their key conference stretch with an 80-67 win over CMU.

Moving to 14-4 in Heart play and picking up an important win over a top-4 league team, the Wildcats sit tied for second in the conference standings with Graceland, who Baker will face next week to close out the three-game homestand.

Up next though, the Wildcats will take on Clarke in a Senior Day matchup for BU as Baker will recognize its men's and women's seniors between games on Saturday, Feb. 3. Tipoff of the men's game is set for 2 p.m. inside the Collins Center.

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