Luster's career night falls short in Pride's narrow loss to Mount Mercy

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Capping off a long night with a tight matchup in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, the Clarke University men's basketball team fell by a slim three-point deficit of 83-80 against Mount Mercy University on Wednesday night.

In a game where the Mustangs never trailed, it would still come down to the ball being in the hands of the Pride, who had two attempts to tie the game from three point range with Biggie Luster and Anthony Eddy both missed with Eddy's shot at the buzzer rattling in and out.

Luster was a the main reason that CU maintained in the game for the entirety of the 40 minutes of the game as he poured in a career-high 31 points 11-of-18 (61.1%) shooting from the field and 6-of-12 (50%) from three point range while adding team-highs at six rebounds, seven assits, and five steals.

Behind Luster's big night, Eddy added 16 points, Daquon Lewis and Stefan Vasic each had 11, and Carson Lindauer added a strong six points, six rebounds, and added three blocked shots in 22 minutes off the bench while Jake Layman dealt with foul trouble in both the first and second halves.

Four members of Mount Mercy also scored in double figures led by Ryan Bartley's 24 points as Aidan Yamilkoski scored 17, Rusmir Hamzic had 14, and Jaxon Fried added 10 off the bench as MMU shot 43.3 percent from the field and 30.8 percent from three point range compared to 47.8 percent from the field for CU and 37.9 percent from deep.

Not lighting up the stat sheet on the scoring side but facilitating a lot of the Mustangs' offense was point guard Anthony Horton Jr. who was a basket and a rebound away from a triple-double with 15 assists, nine rebounds, and eight points but he also finished with 10 of the team's 19 turnovers.

The Pride will be back on the Kehl Center floor this Saturday when they host Peru State College for a 2:00 p.m. CT scheduled tip against the Bobcats.