Shooting woes hinder Pride in return to play at Baker

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - Playing their first non-exhibition game since Dec. 13, the Clarke University men's basketball team was unable to pull out their first Heart of America Athletic Conference win of the season in a 76-60 loss to Baker University on Saturday afternoon.

A tight first half that saw the Pride grab an early lead after trailing 4-0 to start with CU up 12-9 at the 12:27 mark before Baker would take the lead back at 13-12 and never giving it back despite Clarke cutting the game to one possession twice, including making it a one-point game at 30-29 with just under two minutes to go.

The Wildcats finished the first half on a 7-0 run to take an eight-point lead into the halftime break and never look back for the remainder of the game, growing their lead to its largest of the game at 76-55 with about 2:30 left in the game behind a 7-for-12 (58.3%) three point shooting half combined with Clarke going 2-for-16 (12.5%) from deep in the final 20 minutes.

CU's offense had an off day as a whole with the Pride going 19-for-68 (27.9%) from the field with 35 of those 68 attempts coming from three point range but only making six of those for a 17.1 percent game from deep compared to Baker's 30-for-66 (45.5%) from the field and 9-of-21 (42.9%) from three performance.

No player in the game scored more than the 15 points scored by BU's Luke McDonald and Cam Jones to lead the four player in double figures for the Wildcats with Alex Gunnels adding 14 and Shane Treadgill producing 14 of his own off the bench while tying the team-high with six rebounds off the bench.

For the Pride, both Carson Lindauer and Jonovan Howard finished as the only players to finish in double figures for the visitors as Lindauer led the way with 14 points and six rebounds while Howard added 12 points, five rebounds, and four steals in the game as both shot 4-for-10 (40%) from the field.

Clarke was able to produce 31 of their 60 points off the bench led by eight apiece from both Lovre Stanovic and Jackson Graham as Graham produced his eight points in just eight minutes of action going 3-for-7 (42.9%) from the field and hitting two of the team's six three pointers in the game.

Pride men's basketball will return home to the Kehl Center for their next game when they host Graceland University on Wednesday, Jan. 7 in a rematch of a Dec. 3 meeting with a scheduled tip between CU and the Yellowjackets scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT.