Hot three point shooting leads Pride to 100-96 win over William Penn

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Cooling off a bit offensively since their most recent win, the Clarke University men's basketball team produced their best three-point shooting night of the season to earn a 100-96 win over William Penn University on Monday night in the Kehl Center.

The Pride outscored WPU by just two points in each half but the difference definitely came behind the arc as CU finished the game 15-for-25 (60%) from deep while the Statesmen only made seven of their 20 attempts from three to finish at 35 percent for the game. 

Those 15 three pointers ties the eighth-most triples in a game for Clarke men's basketball and is just one shy of the most the Pride have hit in a game against William Penn as they hit 16 against the Statesmen on Feb. 17, 2018.

Trailing by as much as seven in the first half, Clarke would take their first lead since going up 5-2 early at the 4:06 mark in the opening 20 minutes on a Maximiliano Bowman three pointer as the Pride wouldn't trail for the remainder of the half taking their two-point lead into the locker room after a pair of Bowman free throws for the last points of the first.

Bowman would be the game's high scorer for his second-straight game, following up a 25-point game at MidAmerica Nazarene last Saturday with 31 points on 11-of-21 (52.4%) shooting from the field and a 6-for-8 (75%) night from three point range as he would also add six rebounds, four assists, and three steals.

With both teams trading a few buckets to open the first five minutes of the second half, CU would go on a 10-2 run over the next two minutes to take their largest lead of the game at 70-60 before back-to-back threes first from Bowman then Hasmar Francois would put Clarke up 80-68 with just under 10 minutes left.

The Statesmen would climb back into the game, slowly cutting into the lead to finally get it to a one-possession game at 92-90 with just under three minutes to go as Jonovan Howard would hit his third-straight shot from the field over the previous two minutes of game time with a triple to put the game back to a five-point CU lead as Bowman, Francois and DeMarco Clayton would combined to hit enough free throws to put the Pride over the century mark and close out the game.

Clayton, Howard, and Francois would be the three other members of the Pride in double figures in the game as Clayton had 22 points, Howard added 16 off the bench, and Francois didn't miss a shot from the field, hitting all three of his attempts from three point range to finish with 11 points.

William Penn had five players in double digits led by Justin Bradley's 17 points with Roy Jones III adding 13, Naysean Baisy finishing with 12 off the bench, then both Isaac Hoberecht and Jacore Williams each producing 10.

Getting into triple digits with their point total for the second time this season, CU has now recorded 100 or more points in each of their last two wins after going over two seasons worth of games since the last time they scored 100 in a game.

Clarke men's basketball will get back on the road on Wednesday when they travel to Canton, Mo. to take on Culver-Stockton College for a scheduled 7:30 p.m. CT against the Wildcats.