After a rugged match against Woodbury Friday night, the Park Wolfpack didn’t have much left in the tank Saturday and dropped an 83-50 decision to Stewartville.

Playing at Kasson-Mantorville High School in the Southern Minnesota Hoops Fest, the Wolfpack had by far their worst loss of the season. Park came in with two wins to go along with a two-point loss to Roseville and a one-point loss at Cretin- Derham Hall.

In five games so far this season Park has a twopoint loss, a 41-point win, a one-point loss, an 11-point win and a 33-point loss.

Stewartville (6-3) never let Park get going, building a 46-18 halftime lead and cruising home in the second half with the win.

Park (2-3 overall, 1-2 in the SEC) hosts Irondale (34, 1-2) in a rare Wednesday evening game.

Park 59, Woodbury 48

After a long 21-day layoff, Park put a 59-48 hurt on visiting Woodbury at Park High School Friday night.

“It was kind of awkward to get back into it,” said Park guard Tayvion Stewart. “But after the first few minutes it was just like practice.”

Park played stellar defense in the first half and led 22-15 at the break. Both teams got their offense going more in the second half. Woodbury closed to within 38-28 in the second half, but Park kept the Royals at arm’s length the final period.

OT Omot led Park with 21 points. Miskar Esayas added a dozen, David Ola-Kazim 10 and Tayvion Stewart 8.

“I felt we had a lot of good ball pressure and when we got down on ourselves, we came back really well,” said Ola-Kazim. “I felt pushing the pace really worked well and getting our three-point shooters open and them hitting shots and when we weren’t hitting shots I felt we responded well on defense.”

“I think today what we did well was putting defensive pressure on them, contested shots,” said head coach Mike Weah. “I thought we could have done a better job rebounding. I thought we could have done a better job at the end, just taking care of the ball and not panicking. But that’s something that will come within time with this group.

“Not a lot of experience on this team as you know,” Weah continued. “It’s just keep playing it game by game like right now as we’re fully into the season it’s going to feel like a game every day almost. There’s still a lot of growth to do with this group. But I’m happy with the attention they showed after such a long break.”

“Miskar Esayas had a really good game I thought,” Weah added. “Anthony Giadyu had a good game on defense. I thought that Hank took care of the ball pretty well. Different guys are going to step up for us every single night. It’s just a matter of who.”

Park guard David Ola-Kazim brings the ball up against Woodbury pressure in the second half Friday. Photo by John Molene

Park head coach Mike Weah directs the action in the closing minutes of the Wolfpack’s win against Woodbury. Photo by John Molene