CHICAGO, Ill. -- The Vikings men's basketball team faced off with the visiting Saint Mary's (MN) Cardinals on Friday afternoon in a tightly-contested shootout, decided only at the final second by the Cardinals' Raheem Anthony. With the 82-83 loss, North Park's seven-game win streak comes to an end as they move to 9-2 on the season.
The Vikings were able to earn a double-digit lead at points throughout the contest, but that lead proved unsafe against the Cardinals who are one of the elite three-point shooting teams in the nation. That ability to knock down shots from deep ultimately marked the difference-maker. North Park got out to a solid 3-9 start from three in the first half, though the Vikings went cold in the second to the tune of a 1-8 slump. Meanwhile, the Cardinals went 11-20 from distance and multiple of those looks—including the game-winner—came during crunch time.
North Park maintained a second half lead for the entirety of the period until Raheem Anthony nailed a tough shot in the paint to tie the game at 74-74 with two minutes remaining. The score refused to settle for those final minutes, swapping back and forth between multiple ties and one-possession leads. Jordan Boyd finished a putback layup with thirty seconds to play to give the Vikings an 80-79 lead, but Anthony proceeded to even up the game at the free throw line. On the ensuing possession, Marquise Jackson barreled down the lane for a go-ahead bucket that seemed to be the game-winner with just three seconds left on the clock. The Cardinals, with no timeouts, quickly inbounded the ball to Jabari Sawyer who threw it down court to none other than Raheem Anthony. Anthony took a dribble before pulling up from 35-feet out as the buzzer sounded, knocking down the dagger to send the score to a final of 82-83.
The buzzer-beater capped off an exceptional performance from the Cardinals' Raheem Anthony, who tallied game-highs of 41 points and 14 rebounds. For North Park, it was Kolden Vanlandingham pacing the team with 20 points. His 7 rebounds were tied for the team-lead with Karl Polk Jr. Jordan Boyd finished just behind Vanlandingham with 19 points, adding 4 steals and 2 blocks. Marquise Jackson and Shamar Pumphrey were the other Vikings to score in double-figures.
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What's Next?
With the first set of the back-to-back done with, North Park takes on the Benedictine Eagles tomorrow, December 31, at 2:00 P.M. The Vikings will travel to Lisle as the away side where they'll look to begin a new winning streak after today's hard-fought loss.
