Pride season comes to a close with 80-72 loss at Peru State
PERU, Neb. - In their final game of the 2024-25 season, the Clarke University men's basketball team was unable to pull out a victory in an 80-72 road loss to Peru State College on Saturday afternoon.
After taking an early lead that grew to as many as 11 points at 17-6, the Pride would hold the lead for a majority of the half until a Devin Tomlinson three pointer gave the Bobcats a 28-27 lead in the middle of what would end up being an 11-0 run that would extend to 14-4 to close out the final 3:53 of the half.
Peru State would never relinquish the lead despite CU's best efforts of the comeback that would put them down a point at 56-55 under eight minutes to play but the Bobcats held on and even extended their lead back out to nine with just over three mintues remaining and then their largest lead of 10 points on a Donzell Johnson three in their final possession.
Tomlinson and Johnson were two of the five double digit scorers for PSC as Tomlinson led all scorers with 21 points and was a rebound shy of a double-double while Johnson added 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting from three point range off the bench. Carlos Hines had a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double, Aaron Miller had 15 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, and Chris Peoples had 10 points.
Those double-doubles and near third double-double led to the Bobcats outrebounding Clarke 43-28 that included 14 offensive rebounds that led to 15 second chance points as the Pride would shoot better from the field at 45.3 percent compared to Peru State's 40.9 percent but PSC went to the free throw line 22 times, hitting 16 of them compared to just a 7-for-8 day from the line for CU.
Clarke also had five players in double figures led by a 17-point performance from Daquon Lewis as the fifth year senior from Dubuque would close out the final game of his career with his sixth-straight game in double figures to averaged a career-high 11.8 points per game.
Behind Lewis' 17, Devon Junghans had a 14-point game off the bench and the trio of Carson Lindauer, Maximiliano Bowman, and Hasmar Francois all produced 10-point games while combining for 15 rebounds between the three of them.
Pride men's basketball ends the year with a 6-22 overall record and a 6-18 record in the Heart of America Athletic Conference for an 11th place finish in the Heart as Lewis and Jake Layman will be the lone graduates from the program heading into the offseason in prep of the 2025-26 campaign.