The Park University men’s basketball team won a share of the American Midwest Conference regular season championship.
Now, they will have to hold out hope that will be enough to earn a spot in the NAIA National Tournament. The No. 23-ranked Pirates were 21-7 in the regular season and will have to see if they earn an at-large bid when the NAIA selection show is held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11. The Pirates have been in the tournament seven previous times the last in 2017. Five of those times have been under the guidance of current coach Jason Kline.
The reason for the angst is an 84-79 loss to Williams Baptist in the quarterfinals of the AMC Tournament. The Pirates, the No. 2 seed, hosted the seventh-seeded Eagles on Wednesday, March 4 but couldn’t protect home court to move on to the semifinals.
Central Baptist already secured an automatic bid to the tournament by winning a tiebreaker with Park and earning the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
The Pirates shared the AMC title, the first regular season title since the 1997-1998 season.
The winner of the AMC postseason tournament was Harris-Stowe on Monday, March 9, which earned a bid as well. That leaves Park looking for an at-large bid.
Dale Grosbach/Park Athletics
Park’s Corey Reeves, left, throws down a posterizing dunk over Williams Baptist’s Brayden Brewer during an American Midwest Conference quarterfinal game on Wednesday, March 4 at the Breckon Sports Center in Parkville.
In the loss, Cory Reeves threw down a dunk that landed on ESPN’s Sportscenter Top 10 plays of the night, checking in at No. 3.
Reeve finished with 20 points in the victory, though game-high honors went to Williams Baptist’s Travon Cobb, who had 26.
Ernest Myles II had a double-double for Park with 13 points and 19 rebounds. That was the highest total in an AMC Tournament game since Derrick Williams grabbed 20 rebounds for Park in 2016, also against Williams Baptist.
The Pirates led 44-38 at halftime but the Eagles opened the second half on a 16-8 run and took the lead on Cobb’s 3-pointer with 13:41 to play. After Park tied at 54, Cobb hit another 3-pointer with 12:28 to make it 57-54. Park would eventually tie the game at 66 on a basket by Myles but Williams Baptist scored the next seven points and never trailed from there.
Park beat Willams Baptist in the first two meetings this year.
Shining at National Championship
Two Park indoor track and field members took part in the 40th NAIA Indoor Track and Field Championships held last weekend in Brookings, S.D.
Emari Grimes had the highest finish for the Pirates, taking 10th place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.46, her fastest of the season. The freshman from Independence also took 17th in the 200-meter dash.
Sophomore Bailey Turner broke the Park school record in the triple jump with a distance of 37 feet, 10 inches. She took 14th place in the event.
Academic honors
The Park men’s and women’s basketball team combined for 25 academic all-conference picks.
The men’s team tied with William Woods with had an American Midwest Conference high of 12 picks. Those honored — and must be in their second semester at an AMC school and have at least a 3.0 GPA — were A-Montre Williams, Andrew Shepard, Augusto Hausman, Detonio Hawkins, DiCarlo Jackson, Jalen Freeman, Jared Larson, Kenny Agbim, Levi Wylie, Matheus Martins, Shahadah Camp and Wesley Acre.
The women’s team had 13 picks: Ajata Iddrisu, Alyssa Williams, Amanda Alexander (Park Hill), Brooklyn Gildyard, Cautia Wadood, Chantelll Greer, Destinee Robinson, Kaitlyn Fisher, Kennedy Kuykendall, Kiana Smith, Krystal Forrester, Sarah Lamp and Victoria Cuevas.
The Park women’s team tied Lyon for the AMC lead.
Notes: The Park baseball team scored 29 runs in a two-game sweep over Kansas Christian College on Saturday, March 7. Bryce Dye had a three-run home run and drove in four runs in an 11-2 win. In game two, Park won 18-3 after scoring 14 runs between the fifth and sixth inning. Angel Colon-Aviles had an inside the park home run and Zackary Keller had a two-run home run. Keller, Dye and Alex Rodriguez, a freshman from Park Hill South, all had three hits in the win for Park (10-10). …. Luciano Bucci was named the AMC/GPAC/KCAC setter of the week award, which was announced on March 3. The Italian dished out 106 assists in eight sets and helped Park earn two wins. …. The Park men’s volleyball team is currently No. 3 in the NAIA top 10 poll, tied with Menlo (Calif). … The Kansas City Comets held Park University night on Thursday, March 5. The indoor soccer team that plays in Independence has several former Pirates on the roster.