Tale of two halves game sees Pride fall by three to MidAmerica Nazarene
OLATHE, Kan. - Taking their two-game winning streak on the road against the first place team in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, the Clarke University men's basketball team came up a possession short in their 73-70 loss to MidAmerica Nazarene University on Saturday afternoon.
The Pride offense was lethal from three point range in the first half of Saturday's game as they went 11-for-19 (57.9%) from downtown in the opening 20 minutes but would only go 3-for-17 (17.6%) from three in the second half in a microcosm of how the game went in general for CU.
Holding as large as an 11-point lead in the first half behind that hot shooting, Clarke would only enter halftime up seven points at a 45-38 lead and hold a lead for a majority of the second half when the Pioneers would get their first lead since the 15:00 mark of the first half at the 7:24 mark of the second half when they went up 63-62.
Offense was limited on both sides from that point on as there was only 18 total points scored over the remaining 7:24 with the big shot for MNU coming out of the hands of Ed Wright, who gave the Pioneers a 69-68 lead with just over 1:30 remaining as Clarke would commit two turnovers in back-to-back possession to try to regain the lead before Brooks Langrehr and Anthony Brown both went 2-for-2 from the free throw line to give and maintain a three-point lead for MNU.
With a chance to hit two more free throws to grow their lead to five points at seven seconds left, Langrehr missed the front end of a one-and-one, Clarke grabbed the rebound and eventually would get a sideline out of bounds where Chris Burnell caught a pass in the corner with an attempt to tie the game as it was no good, clinching the win for MidAmerica Nazarene.
Brown led all scorers with 22 points on 5-of-9 (55.6%) shooting as he went a perfect 12-for-12 from the free throw line while Caleb Jones-McCrary added 17, Wright scored 15, and Jake Alexander produced 10 points off the bench as the Pioneers dominated the paint area, scoring 54 of their 73 inside the lane, taking only 12 three point attempts compared to CU's 36 attempts from deep.
Anthony Eddy was Clarke's leading scorer with 18 points on 7-of-13 (53.8%) shooting overall and 4-of-9 (44.4%) from three with Daquon Lewis adding his third-straight double-digit scoring game, two of those three finishing with 15 points and Biggie Luster rounded out the double digit scoring for CU with a 12-point game, adding 11 rebounds for a double-double and a team-high seven assists.
Pride men's basketball will return home for a Wednesday night game at the Kehl center on Jan. 31 when they host Culver-Stockton College for a 7:30 p.m. CT scheduled tip against the Wildcats.