Shorthanded Pride fall 106-74 on the road to Mount Mercy

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - In their return to the road, the Clarke University men's basketball team drop Wednesday night's matchup with Mount Mercy University 106-74.

The Pride were without three of their regular starting five and one other member of their bench due to COVID-19 protocols as the Mustangs were able to take advantage of the shorthanded nature of the CU lineup after the early portions of the first half.

Clarke kept the game within single digits up tuntil about the nine minute mark in the first half when MMU would go on a bit of a run to pull their lead out to 20 points at 41-21 before heading into the half with a 54-33 lead.

Mount Mercy would keep their foot on the gas onto the second half to pull away even further before both teams would finish out the game with a majority of their reserves.

Missing a good portion of their front court players, the Pride had issues defending the lane as they allowed the Mustangs to shoot 43-for-77 (55.8%) from the field and score 46 points in the paint compared to just 22 for Clarke. The outside shots fell as well for MMU as they also shot over 50 percent from deep, finishing the game at 16-for-31 (51.6%).

Bailey Basala had the game-high point total, finishing with 28 points as he shot 7-of-10 from three point range while being backed up by a 15-point performance from Melvin Lee, 13 points from RoyShawn Webb, and 12 points from Lavaris Duncan.

Clarke had four scorers in double figures led by Keith Johnson's 19 points as he added four rebounds while both Anthony Eddy and Gabe Shields finished with 14 points getting the spot starts tonight as Reid Larson added 13 points.

Clarke men's basketball will continue on the road this weekend when they face Benedictine College on Saturday for a scheduled tip of 2:00 p.m. CT in Atchison, Kan.