Pride fall in tight finish at Culver-Stockton
CANTON, Mo. - In their third-straight week with a Monday night game and second straight week playing a make up date, the Clarke University women's basketball team was unable to hold on to a halftime lead in a 72-65 loss at Culver-Stockton College.
After a low scoring first quarter, the offense for the Pride picked up in a big way as they would outscore Culver-Stockton by 13 in the second behind a 12-for-19 (63.2%) shooting period from the field as they made two of their three attempts from three point range as both of those makes from deep came off the hand of Zoe Kennedy who scored 13 of her game-high 29 points in the second while going 5-for-6 (83.3%) from the field.
Kennedy would finish with those 29 points while adding eight rebounds, five assists, and a steal on 9-of-14 (64.3%) shooting from the field and 9-of-10 (90%) shooting from the field playing all 40 minutes of regulation for the seventh time this season with six other games reaching 39 minutes and another game going over 40 minutes in a double overtime game.
The Wildcats would start mounting their comeback in the third quarter taking advantage of their trips to the free throw line going 10-for-12 (83.3%) in the third quarter and 5-for-6 (83.3%) in the fourth as CSC would also take better care of the ball in the second half, only turning it over four times in the final 20 minutes compared to 12 turnovers for CU.
Culver-Stockton opened the third on a 12-1 run to cut the 15-point lead down to four as the Pride held off the Wildcats from taking their first lead of the whole game heading into the fourth quarter when just over a minute into the final period, Katie Webb would hit a three to tie the score at 54-54 before Misora Nambara gave CSC the lead right around the seven minute mark of the fourth.
This time it would be Clarke being unable to tie the game or regain their lead as the Pride cut the score to one point on multiple occassions, including with under a minute to go on a Sydni Morris layup but Webb would hit another big three with about 30 seconds left to give the Wildcats a four-point lead as they would hit enough free throws to extend their lead to seven points and keep the game out of reach in the final seconds.
Webb had the team-high for Culver-Stockton with 24 points on 9-of-12 (75%) shooting going 3-for-4 (75%) from three and adding a team-high nine rebounds with Avery Oetting and Olivia Hopp both in double figures at 19 and 10 respectively.
Morris and Maci Kuchta wer also both in double figures as Morris had a strong 16-point, nine-rebound game and Kuchta added 11 points with no one else in the CU lineup scoring more than five points.
Clarke will prepare for their next game, which is slated to be a Wednesday night matchup at William Penn University for the second matchup between the Pride and Statesmen in nine days with a scheduled 5:30 p.m. CT tip in Oskaloosa, Iowa.