Pride second half comeback stymied in road loss to Graceland
LAMONI, Iowa - Returning to conference play after their final non-conference game last weekend, the Clarke University men's basketball team was unable to earn their first Heart of America Athletic Conference win on Wednesday night in an 82-64 road loss to Graceland University.
Shaking up the starting lineup a bit, the Pride were able to see some immediate impact on the return to the starting lineup for Lovre Stanovic, who would end up producing a career-high 20 points and six rebounds in 33 minutes in his first start since Nov. 1 before suffering an illness that kept him out of three games in early November.
Stanovic came out firing, hitting his first two three point jumpers of the game to produce 11 of CU's 28 first half points where Graceland would lead 40-28 at the break behind 15 first half points from Deundra Roberson as the Yellowjackets were able to go from being down 11-9 to lead 25-13 following a 14-2 run over about a five and a half minute stretch in the middle of the half.
Roberson tied for the GU team lead with 17 points while Cole Bowen and Runey Hernandez also produced 17 to lead the way of five double figures scorers as Tyson Shaw added 13 points off the bench and Carson Busch produced a 10-point performance compared to just one other member of the Pride in double figures with DeMarco Clayton's game-high 21 points.
Sunny Parker and Carson Lindauer added nine and seven points respectively in a game where Clarke shot 20-for-57 (35.1%) from the field, but 31.9 percent without the 5-for-10 (50%) performance from the field from Stanovic, hitting three of the team's eight three pointers in the game.
Graceland held a strong advantage down low, outscoring the Pride 38-10 in the paint as they were able to stave off Clarke's second half comeback as they trailed by as many as 15 points at various points in the second half but at the 11:29 mark, a pair of Stanovic free throws started what would be a 19-10 run for CU to pull them within six points at 67-61, ended by another pair of Stanovic free throws with 5:18 left.
From that point on, the Yellowjackets would finish the game outscoring Clarke 15-3 to get to the eventual final margin of 82-64, giving Graceland their fourth Heart win of the year.
Pride men's basketball will return to their home floor of the Kehl Center on Saturday, Dec. 6 when they welcome MidAmerica Nazarene University for a scheduled 2:00 p.m. CT opening tip against the Pioneers.