Park got off to a rip-roaring start, but couldn’t sustain it and dropped a 54-51 heartbreaker to visiting Stillwater Friday in a season-opening boys basketball game.

Trailing by five with six minutes left, Park rallied to tie the game at 48-all with 1:25 to play on an inside basket by junior forward Pharell Payne. Stillwater made two free throws with 12 seconds left to take a four point lead, but Park drained a three-pointer from the corner to cut the lead to one with 6.7 seconds left.

Stillwater again connected for two points at the line for another three-point lead. Park got off one final shot of the game but a long three-point attempt to tie missed the mark.

“I loved the effort that we showed defensively,” said Park head coach Mike Weah. “For the most part I thought that we played really smart. Where we got out of our game is when things stopped going our way at one point a little bit. We took a few unnecessary gambles but that’s all still part of the process. I think for the first game of the year, I’m really excited about the effort we showed defensively.”

Still, it was a tough loss for the Wolfpack considering how well they played to start the game. Park controlled the game at both ends of the court, getting excellent shot aft excellent shot, while denying the same to the Ponies.

The Wolfpack roared out of the gate, grabbing a 23-7 lead with six minutes left to play in the first half. Park’s Payne had outscored the Ponies 12-7 by himself at that juncture of the game.

Building on the success of those first 10 minutes will be job one for Park’s players and coaches.

“I think that will be the key to the season,” Weah said of the Wolfpack’s fast start. “Us coaches will watch that first 10 minutes and see what we were doing well and that would be great if we could sustain it against teams like that, if we could sustain the way we played the first 10 minutes that would be great.”

After the opening 10 minutes, Stillwater gathered itself and stormed back, outscoring Park 16-3 the rest of the first half to close to within 26-23 at the break. Stillwater’s shots started fouling and Park hurt itself with poor shot selection and defensive lapses.

At halftime the music included “Turn the beat around,” and that’s exactly what the Ponies were doing. After Park grabbed a quick couple of buckets to start the second half, the Ponies went on another run and grabbed a 41-36l lead with six minutes to play.

Payne led the Wolfpack with 26 points. Junior ward Evan Bearth added 11 points.

Park, now 0-1, plays at White Bear Lake (1-0) in another Suburban East Conference game on Friday, Jan. 22, starting at 7:15 p.m.