Pride dominate Graceland to runaway 91-49 victory

DUBUQUE, Iowa - A welcome return home to the Kehl Center for Clarke University women's basketball as they cruised to a 91-49 victory over Graceland University on Tuesday night behind one of the better all around first half performances CU has had this season.

The Pride held the Yellowjackets to single digits in points for both the first and second quarters to head into halftime with a 48-17 lead as Clarke held GU to under 30 percent shooting in both first half periods and forced 13 turnovers during the opening 20 minutes.

"We were able to get stops, which led to ball movement on offense," head coach Courtney Boyd said. "We are hoping the discipline we played with tonight will carry over to this weekend on the road."

Clarke would go on to outscore Graceland in the third and fourth quarters as well as, with a majority of the second half minutes coming from the bench as it was a much needed light night of work for CU's starting unit of Skylar Culbertson, Nicole McDermott, Giana Michels, Emma Kelchen, and Tina Ubl who all played over 30 minutes on Saturday at Central Methodist.

Every rostered player for the Pride was able to step onto the floor including a full bench unit fourth quarter that saw Beatrice Atienza score her first varsity collegiate points after being lifted from the varsity reserve roster last week.

All but one player for CU was able to score from the field led by 17 point in 17 minutes off the bench from Taylor Haase as she and Kelchen went to work in the post with Kelchen adding 16 points and five rebounds for the post duo to combined for 33 points on 12-of-17 (70.5%) shooting from the field.

The ball was shared well all around as no other player had more than Michels' nine points as she had her best all around performance since returning to the lineup as she also added five assists and four rebounds in 19 minutes. As a team, Clarke finished the game with a season-high tying 27 assists coming off of only their second single digit assist performance in their last game.

"There were a lot of great things that happened tonight and building on those is what will take us into a much needed break for finals," Boyd said.

The Pride will head into December with three-straight road games starting with a trip to Olathe, Kan. this Saturday to face MidAmerica Nazarene for a 2:00 p.m. CT scheduled tip against the Pioneers before having no midweek games next week for CU finals week.