Tucker’s Game Winner Completes Thrilling Senior Day Victory for Wildcats

BALDWIN CITY - After pulling out a pair of one-point victories on the road last week, Baker men's basketball completed an incredible comeback win at home, defeating Park, 88-87, here Saturday on Senior Day in the Collins Center.

Trailing by eight with just 52 seconds left, the Wildcats scored nine unanswered points in the final minute, including the game-winning layup from senior Myles Tucker with four seconds left, to steal a huge conference win over the Pirates.

Prior to the game, BU honored six seniors for their contributions to the Baker men's basketball program. Those seniors included: Braeden Colwell, Xavier McCord, Luke McDonald, KJ Odour, Myles Tucker, and Ethan Viets.

Both teams shot at a blistering rate for most of the night, with Baker (37-for-67) finishing slightly better than Park (28-for-55) from the field, but the Pirates drained five more 3-pointers than the Wildcats and nearly tripled their free-throw mark with 20 made free throws in the game, compared to just eight from BU.

Cam Jones led a balanced scoring attack for the Wildcats, tallying a team-high 22 points and finishing with five rebounds, two steals and an assist. Tucker totaled 18 points, Jimmy Dorsey followed closely behind with 16 points and Luke McDonald joined the others in double figures with 14 points.

Baker's first six points came from seniors McCord and Odour as McCord scored off the game's opening tip and followed with a stick-back just a few minutes later. A second-chance bucket from Dorsey pulled the Wildcats back within five after Park jumped out to an early lead.

The Pirates pushed their advantage out to a 12-point margin before Tucker and Jones fired off a couple of threes to cut BU's deficit to 22-16. McDonald came up with a steal on one end and then finished off a nice feed from Tucker on the other to keep BU close.

McDonald knocked down another jumper and Odour followed with another easy layup after Jones was able to catch him slipping behind the defense as Park's lead hung around six points. The Pirates worked it back out to double digits until a strong finish from BU.

Tucker and Jones traded baskets and Lucas Lyons added a layup in a high-scoring finish to the first half, which saw Tucker cap the halftime score at 42-37 in favor of the Pirates.

Dorsey opened up the second half by nailing a shot to make it a three-point game before Park started to build its lead back up, just as it had done in the first 20 minutes. McDonald continued to apply pressure to the Pirates defense and scored a stretch of buckets to keep BU within five points.

Tucker recorded five consecutive points for BU, including the first of back-to-back triples from a Wildcats shooter after Dorsey followed with one a little bit later. Park ran its lead up to a double-digit distance yet again at 70-60 and would maintain it until Baker started to lay the pieces of its late-game turnaround in the final three minutes.

With Park leading 80-70 with 3:07 remaining, Eli Obaseki came through with a big layup and Dorsey followed with his second trey of the game to bring BU within five. The Pirates responded with what looked to be a back-breaking three with just over two minutes left, but the Wildcats kept their composure and held Park to just three points the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, Baker's ferocious comeback started off with a layup from Tucker and then, after a couple of free throws from Dorsey, Jones completed a three-point play to make it a one-point game with 20 seconds left.

After forcing another costly Pirates turnover, the Wildcats got the ball back and the chance to draw up the winning play. Tucker's hard drive to the rim resulted in the senior guard getting a challenged layup to fall with four seconds left and the desperation shot would fall short for Park on the other end as Baker pulled off another amazing late comeback to earn its 10th victory of the season.

With three wins in their last four matchups, the Wildcats have had all three of those victories come in the final seconds. In a similar fashion to tonight's game, BU defeated Peru State, 66-65, on Feb. 4 before adding a second straight one-point road win at Missouri Baptist (69-68) last Saturday.

Moving to 10-15 overall and 8-9 in Heart play, Baker will return to the Collins Center on Monday, Feb. 16, to host its make-up game against Missouri Valley, which was postponed due to inclement weather back in late January. Tipoff from Baldwin City is set for 7:30 p.m.

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