After a horrendous January which saw Park win just two of 10 games, the Wolfpack have found February much more to their liking.

In other words, this Park team is learning how to win.

Park built a big lead over a good Minneapolis Edison team, saw some nervous moments late in the second half, but finished strong to claim a 60-52 victory.

“We’re still getting there,” said Park head coach Mike Weah. “There’s still a lot after tonight that we’ve got to get better. We’ve got to learn to put teams away when we have a lead instead of just letting them hang around. So we’re getting there. At least we’re pulling them out. Last two games, teams that fought back hard on us again, but we were able to pull out a win so I guess that’s a step forward and we’ll take it.

It was Park’s third straight win. The Wolfpack have knocked off St. Paul Highland Park, Cretin-Derham Hall and Edison (126) in their last three games.

“It’s just more intensity at practice, more pushing each other because we want to make it to the section championship,” said Park guard David Ola-Kazim. “In order for that we have to win three games in a row. So this is three and prove we’re capable of doing that.”

Junior guard AJ Kennedy, previously little-used this season, is emerging as a scoring star. He had 15 points against Highland Park, led Park with 18 points against Cretin and scored 15 against Edison.

“It’s all part of the master plan,” coach Mike Weah said with a laugh. “AJ’s been doing a great job shooting the ball. We know that he’s a great shooter. We just had to have him locked in on the defensive end before we were able to trust to play him and right now, just defensively I’m really proud of the way that he’s shooting the ball but I’m more proud of the effort he’s giving defensively and the fact that he just stepped in and is able to play his role. He’s able to take on huge minutes. He went from not playing to now he’s playing 12 to 15 minutes stretches where he doesn’t even know he’s going to play that long.”

OT Omot also had 15 points for the Wolfpack. Ola-Kazim, Tayvion Stewart and Anthony Giadyu each had eight points.

“Those last three minutes we played a lot harder,” said Weah. We played the way we’ve been playing for most of the year where we really hard. I think today, we didn’t play a full 36 minutes but I think we really played hard those last three minutes.”

A high-scoring team, with several games in the 80sa and 90s this season, Park held the Edison Tommies to a season low 52 points.

Kennedy jump started Park’s early lead with a pair of threes that gave the Wolfpack a 21-10 lead with 8:33 to play in the first half. The Wolfpack led 33-23 at the half, 15 of those Park points by Kennedy.

The second half was a different story as the Tommies regained their footing and slowly chipped away at the Park lead. Park’s lead shrank from 44-33 with 11:22 left to 44-42 with 8:20 remaining and the rest of the game was a dogfight.

The victim of so many close losses this season, nervous Park fans could see this one slipping away as well. Instead, it didn’t. A big dunk by one of the Edison players fired up the Tommies, but a minute later an equally thunderous dunk by Omot restored the balance. Omot and Giadyu both had big baskets for the Wolfpack down the stretch.

“I think those losses by one point, two points finally got to us, and we finally had to buckle down in practice,” said Park forward Henry Schluetter. “The coaches got to us that we’ve got to be smarter in those final moments and take care of the ball Take every possession one at a time.

“This turnaround should be good for us,” Schluetter added. “We’ve got some good games coming up.”

The game was tied at 46all with 6:55 to play but Park made clutch play after clutch play in the final seven minutes to earn the win. The Wolfpack outscored the visitors 7-0 over the next three minutes and never looked back after taking a 53-46 lead.

Park (5-10, 2-8) returns to Suburban East Conference competition with back-to-back games against Mounds View (116, 5-5). The first matchup is a game at Mounds View Wednesday, followed by Mounds View playing at Cottage Grove on Friday.

Park 71, Cretin-Derham Hall 63 AJ Kennedy scored 18 points to lead a balanced Park attack as the home-standing Wolfpack ran past visiting Cretin- Derham Hall 71-63 at Cottage Grove Thursday.

While neither if these teams are the powerhouses they’ve been in the past, it was still a much-needed win for the Park Wolfpack.

Kennedy’s 18 led Park. OT Omot and Henry Schluetter each added 15, Anthony Giadyu 10 and David Ola-Kazim 9.

Park led 32-26 at the half and kept the Raiders at bay the second half. Park’s 71 points was the third highest offensive total of the season.

Park boosted its Suburban East Conference record to 2-8 and stand 4-10 on the season. Cretin-Derham Hall slipped to 5-6 in the conference and 9-8 overall.

Park 83, St. Paul Highland Pak 67 The Wolfpack ran past St. Paul Highland Park Tuesday, winning by 16 points in the non-conference contest and breaking an eight-game losing streak in the process.

Park hadn’t won since beating Woodbury 59-48 at home on Jan. 6.

The Wolfpack led 49-32 at the half.

The Wolfpack improved to 3-10 on the season. Highland Park slipped to 9-5.

OT Omot poured in 26 points to lead the Park offense. Little-used reserves helped Park win in a big way. AJ Kennedy scored 15 and Kaden Callis 11. The Wolfpack got balanced scoring with Tayvion Stewart and Anthony Giadyu both scoring 9 points and David Ola-Kazim had 8.

Park’s AJ Kennedy drives to the basket in the first half against Minneapolis Edison. Kennedy scored 15 points in the half to spark the Wolfpack. Photo by John Molene

Tayvion Stewart of the Wolfpack works his way past three defenders early in the first half. Photo by John Molene