Pride fall to the Pirates

PARKVILLE, Mo. –  In their first game action in a week, the Clarke University men's basketball team was defeated 101-62 against the Park University Pirates on Saturday afternoon.

Never trailing in this one, the Pirates began the game shooting 11-17 (64.7%) over the first 9:23 of game time as the Pride went 2-16 (12.5%) over the same stretch helping the Pirates build a 28-6 lead before Stefan Vasic of the Pride would hit a pair of threes to make the score 30-12.

Over the final 10:37 of the first half, CU regrouped and scored 24 points over that span with Vasic scoring 11 of the Pride's 30 first-half points in 14 minutes of action as the first half would end with a score of 49-30.

Park wouldn't allow Clarke to get closer than 22 points in the second half as they continued to score, building their lead to as much as 44 points, coming at the 3:49 mark, on their way to a 52-point half.

The starting five of the Pirates helped the team reach 100 points for the second time this year as all of them reached double-figures. The team's leading scorer AJ Watson scored a team-high 20 points on 8-12 (66.7%) shooting. Christian Bradford scored 16 points on 7-9 (77.8%) from the floor and grabbed 24 rebounds. DeMarcus Hudson scored 14 points, and Savian Edwards and Augusto Hausmann each scored 10 to round out the Pirate lineup.

A bright spot for the Pride, Vasic was the team's leading scorer with 20 points off the bench on 8-16 (50%) shooting and 3-6 (50%) from deep. Daquon Lewis scored nine points and secured a team-high seven rebounds.

Shooting 38-69 (55.1%) from the field and 13-25 (52%) from three, the Pirates had one their best shooting games of the season and after the Pride's slow start, the team's shooting numbers balanced out to 23-70 (32.9%) from the floor and 7-29 (24.1%) from beyond the arc.

Up next, the Pride will travel to Culver-Stockton for a Dec. 13th game, beginning at 7:30 p.m. CST.