Pride come up just short in road loss to Park

PARKVILLE, Mo. - Hitting the road in the middle of their final three home games, the Clarke University men's basketball team lost by two points at Park University on Saturday afternoon by a 77-75 final score.

Down by that score with eight seconds left and the ball, the Pride attempted a three point shot from Devon Junghans that did not fall at the buzzer for the Pirates to come out on top of a game that had six lead changes and five ties.

The game was about as even as it could get through the entire 40 minutes as the teams played to a two-point margin in the first half at a 36-34 halftime lead despite the Pirates holding the largest lead of the game at 13 points with 12:36 left in the opening half and both teams scoring 41 second half points.

CU had one of their better three point shooting games of the season, going 14-for-37 (37.8%) for their best game from beyond the arc since the calendar turned to 2026 but Park used a 19-for-24 (79.2%) free throw shooting performance to make up some of the ground they lost with the three point shooting disparity.

Clarke saw quality individual performances from a pair of seniors as Carson Lindauer finished with a team-high 18 points and a career-high 12 rebounds for his second-career double-double as a member of the Pride as the Tomah, Wis. native shot 7-for-11 (63.6%) from the field and 3-for-6 (50%) from three point range, while Nick Bryant had possibly the best game of his four-year career at CU with a career-high 10 points, a career-high tying seven rebounds, and a career-high seven assists.

The final member of the Pride who finished in double figures was Ivan Vukusic as the junior from Split, Croatia had 13 points on 5-of-10 (50%) shooting from the field with Jonovan Howard and Bryce Luster each adding eight points, Joe Brown producing seven off the bench, Junghans finishing at six points, and Lovre Stanovic adding five.

Park had four players in double figures led by the game-high 20 points from Mikkel Cintron as Tristan McRoberts had 17, Amaire Perkins had 13 points off the bench, and Mannie Odo had a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double.

Pride men's basketball will host their final two home games of the season next week, first when they welcome in William Penn University to the Kehl Center for a 7:30 p.m. CT scheduled opening tip on Wednesday, Feb. 11.