No. 2 Baker Falls to No. 5 Peru State, 63-59 in Heart Championship

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - Hosting its first-ever conference tournament championship game, No. 2 Baker fell to No. 5 Peru State, 63-59 in the 2024 Heart Men's Basketball Conference Tournament Championship, presented by WinWon Technologies, here Monday night in front of an electric Collins Center crowd.

The two sides went into the half tied after a late first-half rally by BU, but the script would flip to end the game as a late four-point lead for the Wildcats wasn't enough to hold off a Bobcats team that made all seven of their final free throws to come away with the conferene title.

After a low-scoring effort in Friday's semifinal, the Wildcats struggled offensively again tonight and went the whole game without a three-pointer, finishing 0-for-14 from three. BU shot just 36.5 percent from the floor, but held the Bobcats to a nearly matching number at 36.8 percent.

Ahmed Mahgoub led Baker in scoring with 13 points and added eight rebounds, while Dylan Smith and Ty Henry chipped in 10 points apiece. Noah Rigatuso and Quentin Harvey each finished with nine points.

The Bobcats hit a pair of threes in the game's first five minutes to take an early 13-5 lead. Over the next six minutes, the scoreboard wouldn't change much as Henry, the hero from Friday's game-winner, knocked down a nice fadeaway jumper that brought the score to 16-11 in favor of PSC with nine minutes remaining in the first half.

Rigatuso got a tough jumper to fall on a spin move at the block to get the 'Cats within three, but the Bobcats ran things up to take a six-point lead heading into the final five minutes of the opening half.

With Peru State leading 19-15, the game featured almost as many points in the last five minutes as it did in the first 15 minutes with the two teams trading baskets during a stretch that saw PSC increase its lead to seven points.

Henry sparked a late rally for BU with the sophomore guard swishing another jumper and then adding a big three-point play to get the Wildcats within one before a Mahgoub free throw brought the first half to a 26-26 deadlock at halftime.

The Wildcats looked to have found their footing out of the break, scoring six straight points with a layup by Dylan Smith forcing an early PSC timeout. After Mahgoub made it a six-point lead again for BU, the Bobcats used a 6-0 run of their own to tie the game right back up at 35-35.

The two teams traded leads from there with a couple of free throws from Harvey giving the Wildcats a four-point advantage with less than 10 minutes left in the game.

After a trip to the line allowed Smith to put Baker up by five, Peru State cut it to a one-point game with less than five minutes remaining before Harvey sank another set of free throws to give BU a 54-50 lead with 4:02 left to play.

The Bobcats tied things up at 54-54 and both teams would miss a string of shots before a Peru State layup put them in front by two with just under a minute left. After PSC made it a three-point lead, the Wildcats needed its first triple of the game to fall, but settled for a couple of quick scores that were canceled out by Peru State free throws as the Bobcats held on to take a 63-59 victory in the tournament finale.

Moving to 22-9 on the year, Baker will await its postseason fate and find out if they will receive an at-large bid to the NAIA National Tournament. The NAIA Selection Show will be held on March 7 at 6 p.m., you can find a live stream of the selection show here.

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