Kennedy powers Pride to second-straight home win

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Finishing their second week of action with their second-straight weekday home game, the Clarke University women's basketball team earned a 73-63 win over Waldorf University on Thursday night at the Kehl center.

The Pride were able to overcome a slow offensive start as WU ended the first quarter up 17-10 as CU shot just 3-for-13 (23.1%) from the field and turned the ball over seven times, but thankfully for the home team that would be their worst quarter in those two statistical categories and points on the night.

The Warriors would also have a strong start to the second quarter, jumping out to their largest lead of the night at 23-12, but the three-point shot would play an important role to the comeback for Clarke with Zoe Kennedy and Hailey Walters both knocking down a pair with Jessica Morgan and Kennedy layups sandwiched in the middle of those makes to put the game at its first tie since 7-7 with 3:54 left in the first quarter.

Both Kennedy and Walters were the only members of the Pride to make multiple three pointers in the game as Kennedy went 4-for-8 (50%) on her way to a season-high 34 points while shooting 13-for-21 (61.9%) overall from the field and going a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line as the 34 points was two points shy of her career-high of 36 set last season on Nov. 23, 2024.

Walters was also in double figures with a 12-point night on 3-of-9 (33.3%) shooting from deep and a make from two-point range as well, as both she and Kennedy matched rebounding, assisting, and blocking totals of seven, five, and one each respectively.

The two teams were close in many stat categories to end the game as they shot nearly identical from the field at 43.8 percent for CU and 43.6 percent for Waldorf, both teams made eight three pointers in the game, points in the paint were 34-32 in favor of Clarke, bench points were 9-8 in favor of WU, and turnovers were exactly the same at 18 for both teams.

One of the advantages the Pride held first came from scoring off of their opponent's turnovers as they scored 21 points off of the 18 Warriors' turnovers where Waldorf only scored 12 points off of the 18 CU turnovers. The others came from rebounding as Clarke simply outrebounded Waldorf 42-28 and having 10 more offensive rebounds that led to eight more second-chance points at 12-4 in the game.

Clarke's two leaders in offensive rebounds were sophomores Reese Ryan and Camdyn Kay with Ryan grabbing four of her game-high nine rebounds on the offensive end as she finished a board shy of a double-double at 10 points and those nine rebounds while Kay grabbed three of her six rebounds on the offensive end while adding six points.

Waldorf's duo of Cloey Dmytruk and Jariah Riley kept the Warriors in the hunt all game as Riley did most of her heavily lifting on the offensive end in the first half, scoring 10 of her 13 in the first two periods where Dmytruk picked up the slack in the second half, putting up 17 of her 24 in the third and fourth quarters, including an 11-point fourth.

Pride women's basketball will be back on the road when they travel to a familiar city of Sioux City, Iowa for a non-conference matchup against Morningside University on Tuesday, Nov. 11 with a scheduled 6:00 p.m. CT opening tip.