Pride roll to 85-47 home win over William Penn

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Looking to extend their winning streak to 14-straight, the Clarke University women's basketball team did just that on their way to an easy 85-47 win over William Penn University on Wednesday night at the Kehl Center.

The Pride outscored the Statesmen in each quarter including 12-point advantages in both the first and second quarters at 20-8 in the first and 24-12 in the second to lead 44-20 at halftime. In that first half, CU shot 64.3 percent from the field, had 13 assists on 18 field goals, had 20 bench points to none for WPU, and finished the half with a 26-2 advantage in points in the paint.

"This game we wanted to focus on the details," head coach Courtney Boyd said. "We wanted to utilize our posts more than we have been in the last couple of games and use both sides of the floor."

Those posts in Taylor Haase and Emma Kelchen really went to work in the paint as the pair combined for 14-for-19 (73.7%) from the field with 31 of the team's 85 points. Haase led all players with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field as Kelchen added 13 on 6-of-8 shooting.

Guard Giana Michels was last player in double figures for the Pride in the game as she scored 11 points and added 10 rebounds for her first double-double of her career.

The ball was spread around nicely by Clarke as eight of the remaining 11 players that saw the floor for the Pride recorded points with Hannah Ambrosy (9), Nicole McDermott (8), Mya Merschman (7), Tina Ubl (7), Rebecca Schroeder (6), Skylar Culbertson (2), Izzie Peterson (2), and Anisha Vondenkamp (2) all getting on the board.

Jenna Blunt, Halle Boldt, and Lilly Schilling all also saw significant action in the fourth quarter with Blunt recording a rebound and a steal and Schilling notching an assist in the game.

For the Statesmen, they were led by a pair of 13-point performances from Ally Stewart and Morgan Terry as Terry was hampered with some early foul trouble in the first half.

Clarke women's basketball will hit the road for the first time in 2022 when they head to Marshall, Mo. to face the Vikings of Missouri Valley College this Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CT.