ST. LOUIS—Missouri Baptist Men's Basketball gave No. 20 Park all they could handle on Thursday night at the Petty SRC. The Pirates (8-1, 3-1 AMC) ultimately escaped though with a 75-68 victory, dropping MBU to 1-3 in AMC play and 5-4 overall.
 
Park got off to a fast start, scoring nine of the game's first 11 points. After trailing for the first 19 minutes of the opening half, a three from Jahmouri Robinson finally gave the Spartans their first lead with 1:07 before the break. The Pirates would respond with a three of their own just before the buzzer to take a 29-28 edge into intermission.
 
Coming off a career-high 28 points on Tuesday against Columbia, Robinson picked up where he left off with 17 points in the first 20 minutes on Thursday. He would continue to scorch the nets in the second half, routinely beating double-teams and making shots with a hand in his face.
 
Park led by as many as six (37-31) early in the second half before the Spartans came back and held a lead of four points (54-50) with just under seven minutes to go. The game was tied on five different occasions in the final 20 minutes as two of the AMC's top teams traded haymakers back and forth.
 
The Pirates would finally take a 63-62 lead with 2:03 left and pull away with a 9-0 run before sealing the game at the free throw line.
 
The potential for an upset was due in large part to another heroic effort from Jahmouri Robinson. The senior poured in a career-high in points for the second straight game, this time finishing with 35. Robinson knocked down 11-17 from the field and 9-11 free throws. He also added three assists to move just five shy of tying the Missouri Baptist career record of 367 held by Will Harrington.
 
The Spartans will step out of AMC play to meet the University of Missouri-St. Louis in an exhibition at 3 pm on Saturday. They'll return to the conference schedule next Thursday at Lindenwood-Belleville.