When Park opened the season with five straight wins and six of seven, it seemed the Wolfpack could do little wrong.

But since the Christmas break, things haven’t been going the Wolfpack’s way.

Park dropped its fourth straight decision Friday, falling to visiting Mounds View 61-52. The loss left the Wolfpack 3-2 in the Suburban East Conference and 6-5 overall and facing perhaps their toughest stretch of the season next, meeting league leaders No. 7 East Ridge (8-3, 4-1) Wednesday and No. 5 Cretin-Derham Hall (9-2, 5-0) on Jan. 20 in two of the next three games.

Much like a home loss against Irondale on Tuesday, Park lost the battle of the second half. Against Irondale Park lost the second half 42-35. Against Mounds View, the Mustangs won the second half 33-22 after Park led 20-28 at intermission.

“Same stuff we’re always talking about,” said Park head coach Isaiah Wallfred. “It’s effort, it’s on the defensive end, especially in the second half, we’ve been giving up too many points in all these second halves. I think we’ve been leading at half in almost every game. And then we come out and we don’t have the same energy. Our rebounding is really hurting us – something that we’ve really focused on in practice, put a lot of time and effort into. And we’re still not getting the results. I thought Mounds View just outplayed us. I thought they outworked us. And we have to be better.”

The first half was almost a dead-even draw, with the two teams being tied numerous times until Park made a little surge late for a 26-20 lead with 3:11 to play in the first half.

But that’s kind of where the magic ended for the Wolfpack. Mounds View turned that six-point deficit into a 43-35 lead with 9:39 to play in the second half, outscoring Park 23-9 to take command of the game.

Mounds View stretched the advantage to 52-37 with 6:34 to play and the game was essentially lost for the Wolfpack.

“I thought we played really well in the first half,” said Wallfred. “The first 15 minutes of the game and then we slipped at the end of the first half. We went in with a two-point lead and should have been six to eight. Our intensity was there and then we were just flat. If you look at all of our box scores our second halves just aren’t getting it done. And then I’ve got to figure it out.”

Senior captain Brandon Bihm led Park with 16 points. Junior guard Carter Combs added 13 and senior forward Aaron Sandin had 11.

The Mustangs also hurt Park at the free-throw line, making 17 of-24 shots compared to Park’s 12 of 24.

Park plays at East Ridge Wednesday, then hosts Forest Lake (5-7, 1-4) Friday.

Irondale 67, Park 64

The host Wolfpack dropped a surprising 67-64 decision to visiting Irondale Tuesday.

Park led 29-25 at the half but was outscored 42-35 after the halftime break.

Aaron Sandin scored 22 points to lead the Wolfpack. Justin Ebbers added 13 and Griffin Sell 9.