Wildcats Claim Program’s First Heart Tournament Championship in Blowout over Yellowjackets

BALDWIN CITY - After winning its first regular-seaon title since 1989, Baker men's basketball made history yet again, clinching the program's first-ever Heart Tournament Championship with a dominating, 74-45 victory over Graceland on Tuesday night.

The Wildcats turned a back-and-forth first half into a second-half blowout, outscoring the Yellowjackets, 40-16 in the second half and stonewalling them in the final 10 minutes with GU's last points of the game coming at the 9:38 mark.

One of the key differences in the game came from behind-the-arc where Baker went a red-hot 13-for-29 (45.3%) and forced Graceland's line to match the blizzard-like conditions outside with a dismal 2-for-20 night from three.

Ahmed Mahgoub had a huge night to lead BU, draining six 3-pointers to finish with a game-high 24 points. Noah Rigatuso tallied 17 points and Ty Henry chipped in nine points off the bench, while Quentin Harvey (8) and Kaimen Lennox (7) each came through with some timely buckets.

Rigatuso provided the scoring early on for BU with eight quick points out of the gate, knocking down a three before Mahgoub followed with his first trey of the game to make it an 11-4 lead in the first few minutes.

A three-point play from Lennox kept the Wildcats in front and Mahgoub buried another three to stretch BU's lead out to nine points at 22-13 with under seven minutes left in the first half.

Graceland's only 3-pointers of the game came just over a minute apart and gave the regular-season runner-ups its first lead of the ballgame to go up by one.

A three by Harvey swung the lead right back to BU's side before Rigatuso closed out the half with the team's sixth triple of the opening 20 minutes to make it a 34-29 halftime lead.

In the second half, the Yellowjackets tied the game a few minutes in, bringing the score to a 37-37 deadlock before the Wildcats started to turn on the jets.

Lennox ignited the rally with a shot from deep and Harvey scored back-to-back buckets as Baker started to build its lead. GU made it a five-point ballgame a little bit later, but that would be as close as they would get for the remainder of the game.

A great hustle play on the offensive boards by Keynan Russell led to an open three for Henry and a runner in the lane from Nick Whittick gave the Wildcats a double-digit lead with just under 11 minutes left in the game.

The Yellowjackets scored their final points of the game to make it 53-45 before being shut down the rest of the way by the Heart's toughest defense with the Wildcats leading the league in fewest points allowed per game (66.3) during the regular season.

Meanwhile, Mahgoub swished in a couple more threes to pad the lead and free throws from Korey Jones made it a 20-point advantage with four minutes left to play.

As an electric Collins crowd started to get antsy to celebrate, head coach Sean Dooley emptied his bench for the final few minutes with senior Javin Shaw drilling the last three of the game to put the icing on the cake of a 74-45 victory.

By sweeping the conference titles, the Wildcats added to their already historic 2024-25 season, chalking up another win to its program-best total with 28 victories this year.

Baker will turn its attention to the NAIA postseason now and, as one of the 16 on-campus host sites, will host its first-ever national tournament games with the 2025 NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship First & Second Rounds, presented by Ballogy, coming to Baldwin City on March 14-15.

The Wildcats will welcome three other teams to the Collins Center for the first two rounds of the playoffs. The final 64-team field and bracket will be announced on Thursday, March 6 at 7 p.m. on the NAIA Network.

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