Pride comeback falls short in road loss to Trinity Christian
PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. - After opening their season with three home games last week, the Clarke University men's basketball team got their first taste of action away from the Kehl Center but dropped a 96-79 at Trinity Christian College on Tuesday night.
The Pride and Trolls traded blows in the early going before TCC went on a 21-0 over about a six-minute stretch in the middle of the first half to take a 12-11 lead all the way to their largest lead of the game at 33-11 and hold a 22-point lead until about the 6:30 mark in the half.
Freshman forward Joe Brown would spark an offensive resurgence for CU off the bench, knocking down three-straight shots to cut the Trinity Christian lead down to 15 points to get the Pride going back in the right direction, finishing the half outscoring the Trolls 27-12 and enter halftime only down seven points at 45-38.
Brown got his first significant run of the season due to his strong production getting Clarke out of their scoring funk as the Cumming, Ga. native played a season-high 21 minutes to score a game-high 20 points on 8-of-11 (72.7%) from the field and 3-of-6 (50%) from deep with 12 of his 20 coming in the first half then adding eight more in the second half.
Similar to the start of the first half, the Pride were able to trade buckets with Trinity Christian and get their lead down to five points at its closest but another Trolls' run allowed them to pull away essentially for good as they led by nine at 60-51 and went on a quick 7-0 run to push that lead back to double figures basically for good.
Clarke was able to get the game back to eight points with about three minutes left on a DeMarco Clayton three pointer that cut the score to 84-76, but three-straight scores by TCC made it a 16-point game with just under two minutes to go, finally putting the game away once and for all.
Clayton couldn't overcome a rough shooting start as the senior guard finished with 13 points on 4-of-16 (25%) shooting from the field and a 3-for-10 (30%) night from deep but was able to lead the team with nine rebounds as two other members of the CU starting unit also finished with double figures with Carson Lindauer posting 17 points and eight rebounds and Desmond Jones having 16 points, a team-high six rebounds, four rebounds, and two steals in his first career start.
Four members of the Trolls also finished with double digit scoring nights led by a 17-point game from Brandon Adorno as he was supported by 14 points from Garrett Greene, 13 from Jaidan Gilzene, and 11 from Tylan Harris.
Pride men's basketball will remain away from home for two more games this week as they'll visit Seward, Neb. for the Cattle Classic hosted by Concorida University with their first game of the event coming on Friday, Nov. 7 when they play Hastings College for an 8:00 p.m. CT scheduled opening tip.