Hot start not enough in Pride's 83-74 loss to Culver-Stockton

DUBUQUE, Iowa - After a week away from conference play, the Clarke University. men's basketball team faced a Heart of America opponent on their home floor to an 83-74 loss to Culver-Stockton College on Tuesday night.

The Pride would jump on the Wildcats early, starting the game up 13-2 over the first 5:15 then extending that lead out to 13 points a couple of different times then to a 14-point lead at 22-8 with under 10 minutes to go in the first half for their largest lead of the game.

From that point on, Culver-Stockton would finish the half on a 31-18 advantage to cut the lead to just one point at 40-39 at the break as the teams would trade a few punches early in the second half before CSC would take their first lead of the game at 51-49 then go on a 10-0 run after the score was tied at 51-51 that would extend to an 18-4 run to grab their largest lead of 14 points with about 6:30 remaining in the game.

The closest CU would pull the game would be to seven ponits at 73-66 before another mini-run from the Wildcats would put the game away at an 83-69 lead with just about a minute left to go in the game.

Both teams hit 29 shots from the field but Culver-Stockton was more potent from three-point range going 11-for-28 (39.3%) while Clarke went 7-for-30 (23.3%) as the Wildcats would also hold a significant free throw advantage at 14-for-15 (93.3%) compared to 9-for-17 (52.9%) for CU.

The two teams also had a common three players in double figures with the leading scorers for each team breaking the 20-point barrier as Maximiliano Bowman led all scorers with 23 points for the Pride and Connor Davis had a 21-point game for Culver-Stockton.

Clarke also got 17 points from Jake Layman and 12 points with eight rebounds from Daquon Lewis while the Wildcats had 18 points and eight rebounds from Tai Walters-Whitaker and 13 points from Ryan Stevenson off the bench.

Pride men's basketball will finish out the month of December with three-straight home games starting this Saturday, Dec. 7, when they host Central Methodist University for a 2:00 p.m. CT tip in the Kehl Center.