(Peru, Neb.) – After trailing by as many as 12 in the first half, the Peru State men's basketball team found another gear and came back to lead by seven at halftime. Eventually, the Bobcats won 90-81 over the home-standing Baker University Wildcats in Baldwin City, Kan., Wednesday night.
 
With the win, coupled with a loss by MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) University last night, the 'Cats find themselves again in a three-way tie at the top of the Heart of America Athletic Conference with one game remaining. All three teams have 16-5 conference marks with William Penn (Iowa) University having the best overall record at 23-6 while MidAmerica Nazarene is now 22-7 and Peru State is 20-9. Baker fell to 14-13 overall and 8-13 in the Heart.
 
This is Peru State's first 20-win season since 2002-03 when Jerre Cole's team finished 21-11. Prior to that, the 1996-97 team, coached by John Gibbs finished 25-9.

 
First Half Action
 
The Wildcats score the first seven points of the game before Corday Sims (Chicago) hit a three-pointer off the assist from Quantice Hunter (Chicago) at the 17:17 mark. Baker would increase its lead to 17-5 with 13:54 remaining in the first half before Darwin Ellis (Brooklyn, N.Y.) would drain a trey off an assist from Jamar Cannon (Inglewood, Calif.) on the next possession.
 
Back-to-back buckets by Sims off Baker turnovers cut the deficit to five at 17-12 with 11:29 left. Later, after an offensive rebound by Ellis, Sims would get a bucket in the paint to make it 17-14. Later, Sims would hit a pair of free throws and suddenly, the Bobcats were back within one at 17-16.
 
The Wildcats would respond with a two-pointer only to see Sims drain a trey to tie it at 19-19 with 8:46 left in the first 20 minutes. After a Baker bucket gave them back the lead, Cannon would hit a three-pointer on an assist from Hunter and Peru State had its first lead in the contest at 22-21 with 7:47 left in the half. The Bobcats never trailed after that point.
 
The Bobcats would lead by as many as 11 in the first half after Josh Varney (Cape Coral, Fla.) hit a pair of free throws with 1:02 remaining. The Wildcats would cut the deficit back to seven by halftime and trailed 40-33.
 
Second Half Action
 

Early in the second half, the teams traded buckets before Peru State had its first double-digit lead at 50-40 after Hunter made the first of two free throws at the 16:17 mark in the contest.
 
With 15:08 left in the contest, Peru State had its largest-lead at 57-43 after Hunter hit a three-pointer.
 
Peru State led by 11 several times throughout the remainder of the game and was up by 13 at 89-76 after Kris Frazier (Cleveland) hit a pair of free throws with 25 seconds left.
 
Team Statistics
 
Peru State made 23 of 52 field goal attempts for 44.2% including hitting 10 of 27 from downtown for 37%. At the free throw line, the Bobcats went 34 of 43 for 79.1%. Baker made 30 of 83 field goals for 36.1% and also made 10 of 30 from behind the arc for 33.3%. At the charity stripe, the Wildcats hit 11 of 17 for 64.7%.
 
The Wildcats had a slight rebounding edge as they grabbed 45 boards compared to 42 for Peru State. The teams had similar amount of assists as Baker had 11 while the Bobcats had ten. Peru State finished with 13 turnovers while Baker had seven. The Bobcats blocked seven shots while Baker had none. Peru State had five steals with the Wildcats finishing with eight.
 
Individual Statistics
 
Sims finished with his fifth-straight game of 30 points or more as he had a game-high 33 points on 9 of 19 shooting from the floor and making 12 of 13 at the charity stripe. Hunter and Frazier also were in double figures with 15 and 14 points respectively.

 
Riak Bol (Omaha) led the team with seven rebounds with Frazier, Sims, Hunter, and Rich Shepherd (Greenville, N.C.) each grabbing four.
 
Jeff Neverson (Brooklyn, N.Y.) led the team with three assists while Hunter added two. Frazier blocked five shots with Bol blocking two. Ellis, Sims, Neverson, Hunter, and Bol were each credited with one steal.
 
Upcoming Games
 
The final regular-season game is this Saturday, Feb. 27, when the Bobcats host Evangel University of Springfield, Mo. The Crusaders will look to ruin Peru State's post-season seed as they will not be playing in the conference tournament as they are 6-15 in the Heart and 7-22 overall. Evangel did pull an upset Wednesday night as they topped MidAmerica Nazarene to put the Bobcats in a three-way tie at the top of the league. Peru State defeated Evangel 96-76 back on January 11.
 
Saturday is a big day at Peru State as it is Senior Day for five Bobcats. In addition, it will be Military Appreciation Day, Scout Day, and Red, White, and Blue Day.
 
With the current standings, the Bobcats will host at least one post-season game next week on Wednesday, March 2, at 7 p.m. The opponent will not be known until after Saturday's games. In addition, with a win, the Bobcats could be hosting on Friday, March 4, at 7 p.m.