Pride hold off Mount Mercy for 75-61 road win

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - In the first renewal of their rivalry of the 2022-23 season, the Clarke University women's basketball team was able to pull away with a 75-61 win over Mount Mercy University on Thursday evening.

The Mustangs were ready for the challenge of the No. 8 team in the NAIA rankings, keeping the score within one point at the halftime break but third and fourth quarter advatages of five and eight for CU helped the Pride earn the 14-point victory at the final buzzer.

For the third-straight game, Tina Ubl powered the Clarke offense as the team's leading scorer, with an 18-point performance coming off of 14 and 16-point efforts in her last two outings. Ubl continues to shoot the three-ball at a strong rate, going 3-for-6 in the game as the Pride improved their outside shooting performance from the last few games, finnishing at a 41.7 percent (10-24) mark.

Nicole McDermott was all over the floor providing secondary scoring to Ubl, finishing with 14 points and a career-high 17 rebounds nearly splitting her rebounding in half between offensive (8) and defensive (9). McDermott neared a triple-double while adding seven assists in 33 minutes of action.

Taylor Haase and Giana Michels both also provided double figures for Clarke as Haase had 12 off the bench with six rebounds and Michels scored 10 and added two three pointers of her own, going 2-for-6 from deep.

The game's leading scorer was MMU's Annika Headington as she scored 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and going 3-for-4 from three point range.

Clarke will return home for their final game before the break when they host Benedictine College at the Kehl Center this Saturday for a 12:00 p.m. CT scheduled tip in Dubuque.