One of the best seasons in Baker men’s basketball history will roll on for at least another week, as the Wildcats took advantage of their status as a first-time NAIA Tournament host by advancing out of the first weekend.

No. 3 seed Baker defeated No. 6 Concordia on Saturday night to reach the Round of 16 for the first time since the tournament expanded.

The Wildcats took down the Bulldogs 80-65 at the Collins Center, led by senior guard Ahmed Mahgoub’s 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting, 14 points and seven rebounds from Noah Rigatuso and a teamwide defensive effort that limited Concordia to 33.3% shooting.

Concordia got a 26-point, 10-rebound double-double from Noah Schutte and 13 points and 10 boards from Tristan Smith. The additional 13 Bulldogs who saw action combined for 27 points and 15 rebounds.

Junior guard Ty Henry, a first-team all-conference selection, got Baker going early on with back-to-back-to-back 3s to which Kaimen Lennox added a three-point play for a 12-0 run. Concordia got back within seven points on a 3-pointer by Schutte, only for the Wildcats to respond with another long unanswered stretch, this time with 15 straight points over the course of just three minutes and 15 seconds.

That made it a 22-point lead, and Baker took that same margin into halftime at 48-26.

Led by Schutte and Smith, the Bulldogs struck back with an 11-3 run to give themselves a fighting chance down the stretch, and they got the deficit down to 10 points with five minutes remaining thanks to 3s by Schutte, Jaxon Stueve and Elijah Gaeth. But they didn’t get another field goal for three additional minutes after that, allowing Baker to put the finishing touches on a 15-point win.

The Wildcats will now proceed to the NAIA’s national championship, held over the course of four rounds across six days at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. They benefited from an upset on Saturday, as No. 2 seed Dordt went down 75-73 at home to No. 7 Oklahoma Wesleyan. The Eagles qualified as the regular-season champions of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference, and they will face Baker on either Thursday or Friday.

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