Pride hang tough but come up short in 77-68 loss to Benedictine
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Finishing off a brief two-game homestand, the Clarke University women's basketball team was unable to continue their winning streaks on Saturday afternoon at the Kehl Center as Benedictine College defeated the Pride 77-68.
Despite never trailing in the game, the Ravens only held as much as a four-point lead early on in the first quarter before the visitors would they would use the final 2:30 of the opening period of the game to go on a 9-0 run to take a 14-12 lead all the way to 23-12 entering the second, capped off by an Oen Deters three pointer with 10 seconds left.
Benedictine would hit their first two shots of the second quarter to take their largest lead of the game at 28-12, but Clarke would slowly chip away at that lead to get within six points following three-straight Zoe Kennedy layups through traffic to make it a 30-24 game as that would essentially start a stretch where seemingly every time CU cut it to a two-possession game, Benedictine would have an answer to get back to up double figures.
The closest the Pride would cut the Ravens' lead was with about 2:28 remaining in the fourth quarter when a Hailey Walters hit a three pointer to make it a 68-64 game before a BC play in the paint had the Clarke bench looking for a jump ball, traveling, or three-seconds in the paint violation but the call was a personal foul on CU along with a technical, giving Benedictine two free throws and the ball that they would get three points in that possession to take a seven-point lead and hit their remaining free throws to close out their eighth Heart win of the season.
Both teams relied primarily on two point scorers in the game as Kennedy and Walters both poured in over 20 with Kennedy producing a game-high 27 points while adding eight rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocked shots, with Walters hitting four of the team's five three pointers made on the game for a 22-point performance.
Benedictine's Riley Bruggeman led the team with 23 points, 11 of which came from the free throw line, while adding four rebounds, four assists, and four steals with Nicole Storck adding 17 points and six rebounds while the Ravens did have a third player in double figures with Deters having a 10-point, seven-assist game.
The game's physicality saw the teams combine for 40 total fouls called and 44 turnovers over the 40-minute contest with BC taking the slight advantage from the free throw line, going 15-for-18 (83.3%) with Clarke shooting 13-for-16 (81.3%) but it was the points off of turnovers where the Ravens really pulled ahead, scoring 33 points off of the 24 CU turnovers compared to just 10 points for the Pride off of Benedictine's 20 giveaways.
Clarke women's basketball will be on the road for their next game, their final road game of the 2025-26 season when they travel to Lawrence, Kan. to face Haskell Indian Nations University to return a game played in the Kehl Center in the 2024-25 season with a 4:00 p.m. CT scheduled opening tip on Jan. 12.