With five minutes left in the second half, the tension increased as Park and Washburn started to get physical, leading to the Washburn bench getting ejected from the game. This led to the 73-70 win in Park’s first Section game.

Washburn had to play the rest of the game with six players and only one bench sub, while the rest of the team waited in the locker room.  

Coach Rob Griffin said Park continued to play hard and stick with its game plan.

“We knew that we had to continue to attack the basket. There wasn’t much that we really needed to change. They didn’t have an extremely deep bench to start with. We just tried to play our game and finish it out,” Griffin said.

Junior Paris Johnson said although Park started off on a good note, Washburn distracted the team and its ability to focus.

“It started off good. We started playing our game, then it got a little sloppy. We let them get into our heads (and) started playing their game,” Johnson said. “They started to come back but we got away with one.”

Senior Cole Ewald said the team missed easy points that would’ve increased Park’s lead.

“We came out with the win but we didn’t play very good. If we would’ve made our free throws we would’ve been up like 10 more points. It just killed us,” Ewald said.

According to Griffin, Park made errors during the game that must be fixed in order to continue competing in the playoffs.

“There were some mental mistakes that we made throughout the game and down the stretch that we’ve definitely gotta clean up going forward if we want to continue to play in this postseason,” Griffin said.

Johnson said the team will prepare for its second Section game by shooting more and practicing free throws.

“(Just) getting more shots up and shooting more free throws,” Johnson said.