Wildcats’ Historic Run Comes to an End in Round of 16 Loss to No. 7 OKWU

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Playing in its first Round of 16 matchup, No. 3 Baker fell to No. 7 Oklahoma Wesleyan, 77-65 in the 2024-25 NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship Round of 16 here Friday night in Municipal Auditorium.

The Wildcats came out with an electric first half, pouring in eight threes to take a five-point halftime lead, but couldn't carry that spark over into the second half as the Eagles pushed past BU down the stretch and spoiled its tournament run.

"I told the team in the locker room afterwards, one night isn't going to define us or who we are as a team," said head coach Sean Dooley. "I'm so proud of them and where they've taken this program. Tonight just wasn't our night and it wasn't from a lack of effort, those guys left it all on the court tonight."

Baker, who usually hovers around the 50-percent mark for its shooting with a season average of 47.7 percent, went just 8-for-29 from the floor in the second half. Meanwhile, OKWU shot at a blistering pace with a 16-for-25 line in the latter 20 minutes.

Noah Rigatuso led Baker in scoring with 20 points, while also pulling down eight rebounds and dishing out five assists. Ty Henry went 3-for-5 from behind the arc to finish with 14 points as a total of nine Wildcats got into the scoring column in the NAIA matchup.

After securing the opening tip for BU, Quentin Harvey came right down and buried the first shot of the game with a 3-pointer as the Wildcats took control early on. Rigatuso and Kaimen Lennox both followed with a trey to make it a 16-12 lead for BU.

The Eagles cut it to a one-point game before Henry knocked down a triple in transition to kick off a barrage of threes from Baker's side. Ahmed Mahgoub and Korey Jones each connected on one from the wing before Mahgoub drained his second triple on a corner three to push the Wildcats' lead out to 30-19.

As OKWU started to hit some shots down the stretch, another three by Henry kept BU in front as the Wildcats went into the break with a 37-32 advantage.

Baker went 8-for-19 from three-point range in the first half with six different Wildcats tallying a three in the first period.

In the second half, the Eagles started to pound the ball inside and got a couple close buckets to work their way back and eventually take the lead within the first few minutes.

Rigatuso and Henry drilled the only two treys of the second half for BU just about a minute apart to keep BU within five with less than seven minutes left to play. Three straight layups from the Eagles saw them take a 66-55 lead with 4:25 remaining.

A three-point play from Henry looked to hopefully trigger a late rally for the Wildcats, but they would miss some key free throws down the stretch as OKWU finished off its Round of 16 win on a final score of 77-65.

With the result, Baker closes out a historic 2024-25 season that saw them chalk up a handful of firsts for the program. Going 30-4 overall, BU marked its most wins in a season (30), swept the Heart of America Conference championships and reached the NAIA Round of 16 all for the first time in program history.

After earning the program's first victory in the NAIA tournament last year, the Wildcats won back-to-back games, serving as one of the 16 host sites for the NAIA First and Second Round last week in the Collins Center.

With 10 seniors on the squad, Baker had seven players earn All-Heart honors with Harvey, Henry, Mahgoub and Rigatuso all making the first team. Lennox received a third-team nod and Jones and Nick Whittick joined Mahgoub on the Heart's All-Defensive team.

"The character of this group is what is so special and the reason they've been so successful," added Dooley. "How they've represented not only this program, but Baker University as a whole in a first-class way has been an absolute joy as a coach to see and I'm just extremely proud of them."

In his 13th season with the program, Coach Dooley won his 200th career game in the quarterfinals of the Heart Tournament and was named Heart Coach of the Year. Assistant coach Trent Scheer took home the Heart Assistant Coach of the Year award.

#BakerBuildsChampions