Final Regular Season NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll sees Pride land in the No. 7 spot

Final Regular Season NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll sees Pride land in the No. 7 spot
February 22, 2023

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - In the final release of the 2022-23 NAIA Top 25 Coaches' Poll, the Clarke University women's basketball team hopped up one spot to No. 7 as the NAIA released the poll Wednesday morning.

This marks the first time this season that the Pride have landed at the No. 7 spot as they held the No. 8 postition for the last four polls dating back to December as they ranked as high as No. 5 early in the regular season.

Full rankings can be found here: https://www.naia.org/sports/wbkb/2022-23/Releases/Final_National 

CU finished the regular season with a 25-3 overall record and a 19-3 record in Heart of America Athletic Conference play as two of their three losses came to the new No. 1 team in the NAIA rankings in Central Methodist University and the other came on the road to the Heart regular season third place team in MidAmerica Nazarene University.

After their 28 regular season games, the Pride have nearly outscored their opponents by an average of 20 points per game as Clarke finished averaging 74.2 points per game of offense while shooting 43.6 percent from the field as a team and allowed their opponents to score 58.4 points per game as they held foes to a 36.4 field goal percentage. 

Offensively, Clarke boasts a deep offensive attack led by senior Tina Ubl's team-leading 12.4 points per game as Emma Kelchen (11.9), Nicole McDermott (10.8), and Taylor Haase (10.4) also finished averaging double figures in scoring. McDermott led the team in rebounding in the regular season with a careeer-high 7.7 rebounds per game while also dishing out 2.7 assists per game, the second-best mark on the team.

The assist leader on the team is none other than Skylar Culbertson, who finished the 28-game regular season with a career-high 5.1 assists per game average as she also scored near a career-high 5.0 points per game as the team's leader in minutes played per game at 28.0.

Senior Giana Michels and sophomore Mya Merschman round out the primary scoring rotation as both averaged over eight points per game and both currently on their best scoring stretches of the season finishing in double figures six times over their last 10 games.

Clarke women's basketball will host the quarterfinals of the Heart Tournament today at 2:00 p.m. CT in the Kehl Center against Evangel University in a rematch of the 2021-22 tournament first round.