Wildcats Secure Spot in Round of 16 with 80-65 Victory over No. 6 Concordia in NAIA Second Round

BALDWIN CITY - Playing in the second round for the second straight year, No. 3 Baker rolled past No. 6 Concordia, 80-65 in the 2025 NAIA Men's Basketball Championship Second Round here Saturday night in the Collins Center to advance to the Round of 16.

After earning its first NAIA postseason victory last year, Baker has already came away with back-to-back wins in this year's national tournament to advance past the second round for the first time in program history.

The Wildcats move on to the final site of the NAIA Championship and will face No. 7 Oklahoma Wesleyan in the Round of 16 on Friday, March 21 at 7 p.m. at historic Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.

"It was a total team effort tonight," said Baker head coach Sean Dooley following the win. "Whether we play eight or nine guys, they don't care about the minutes or the shots, they just care about winning and I'm just excited they get to enjoy this moment."

Baker put on an incredible show in the first half, shooting at a red-hot clip from the floor (62.5%) and nailing six 3-pointers to go into halftime with a commanding 48-26 lead. BU then weathered a second-half push from the Bulldogs to finish off a perfect 17-0 record at home.

Ahmed Mahgoub paced another typical balanced scoring night for the Wildcats with 16 points, while three other players hit double figures as well. Ty Henry had an electric start to the game, hitting three treys in the span of two minutes and finished with 13 points.

Noah Rigatuso (14) and Kaimen Lennox (11) each marked double-digit scoring to round out a BU squad that had 14 total players see action in the NAIA matchup.

One of the key matchups in the game came on the defensive end for BU, holding CUNE's leading man Tristan Smith to a harmless 13 points with Quentin Harvey and Keynan Russell drawing a majority of the assignment.

Henry's three-point barrage sparked things for Baker to start and put them in front early, while Lennox followed with a three-point play the hard way to make it an 18-7 lead. Lennox tacked on a three from behind the arc a little bit later.

Mahgoub followed up his first trey of the game by converting a three-point play and Rigatuso continued the run by drilling a three to give BU a 38-16 lead with just over six minutes left in the half.

A transition layup from Harvey and a bucket from Rigatuso closed out the first half for the Wildcats as they went into the intermission with a comfortable 22-point lead.

The Bulldogs came out of the locker room and made things interesting in the second half, going on a 30-16 run to get within 10 points with 5:37 left to play.

Nick Whittick delivered a couple of timely buckets though to hold off the CUNE surge before Mahgoub completely squashed the rally with his second three of the night.

Each side emptied their benches in the final minutes as the Wildcats celebrated their final game in Collins this year with an emphatic 80-65 win.

"Give credit to them (Concordia) though," added Dooley. "That's a heck of a team they have there and we knew they weren't going to quit, but credit to our guys as well for their grit and determination in pulling this one out."

Baker and Oklahoma Wesleyan will close out the Round of 16 action as the last game on Friday. As the KCAC's regular-season champion, the Eagles come into the matchup with a 25-7 record overall and upset No. 2 Dordt with a 75-73 victory in the Second Round earlier tonight.

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