Pride's offensive struggles leads to 84-51 loss at No. 11 Indiana Wesleyan

MARION, Ind. - Facing their third NAIA top-15 opponent in their first five regular season games to start the 2021-22 season, the Clarke University women's basketball team fell to No. 11 Indiana Wesleyan 84-51 on Friday night. 

In most facets of their offensive game, it was a struggle for the Pride as they shots 19-of-52 (36.5%) from the field, 1-of-14 (7.1%) from three-point range, and turned the ball over 22 times in the game. Those 22 turnovers turned into 35 of the Wildcats 84 points as they shot it slightly better from the field at 31-of-69 (44.9%) and 10-of-30 (33.3%) from deep.

It was only a seven-point advantage for Indiana Wesleyan after one quarter of play but it was a 23-7 second quarter advantage of IWU that helped them pull ahead by 23 at the halftime break.

Individually, Maddie Lawrence led the game in scoring with 19 points on 7-of-12 (58.3%) shooting from the field and 4-of-7 (57.1%) shooting from three-point range. She was one of four scorers in double figures for the Wildcats as Madison Davis added 11 points in the starting lineup and Lilli Frasure and Adrianna Trexler added 13 and 10 points respectively off the bench.

For CU, Mya Merschman was the team's leading scorer with an efficient 10 points on 4-of-6 (66.7%) shooting from the field while adding four rebounds. Taylor Haase scored nine points off the bench on 4-of-4 shooting but struggled with foul trouble as she finished the game with four personal fouls against.

It will be a quick turnaround for Pride women's basketball as they'll face Bethel University (Ind.) Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CT/1:00 p.m. ET at the Luckey Arena in Marion, Ind. to finish out the Leah Whittaker Memorial Classic.