Culbertson goes for career-high as Pride close out Heart Quarterfinal win over Evangel

DUBUQUE, Iowa - In a rematch from a Jan. 7 regular season meeting, the Clarke University women's basketball team earned a 92-82 win over Evangel University in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinals on Wednesday afternoon.

The Pride were able to use a strong ending to the first quarter and a 20-13 second quarter to hold a 16-point lead at the halftime break and were able to knock down most of their free throws down the stretch to close out their 10-point win despite the Valor winning both the third and fourth quarters.

Free throws played a big part in CU's win as they finished 29-of-32 from the charity stripe for a 90.6 percent make rate compared to Evangel's 16-for-19 (84.2%) effort from the line. In the final 20 seconds Skylar Culbertson went 4-for-4, Nicole McDermott went 2-for-2, and Emma Kelchen nailed the final two as EU cut the lead to six points in the final moments.

Culbertson might petition to play all weekday games at 2:00 p.m. CT as the senior scored a career-high 16 points and added 11 rebounds for her first double-double of the season while adding four assists. It was just the second time all season that the All-Heart Second Team selection scored in double figures this season, topping her previous career-high of 15 she set back on Nov. 22 against Grand View.

Joining her with 16 points of their own were fellow fifth year seniors Emma Kelchen and Tina Ubl as they both made shots from the field, grabbed four rebounds, and had at least one blocked shot as Kelchen finished with two and Ubl added one. The underclassmen trio of Nicole McDermott, Taylor Haase, and Mya Merschman each added 12 points as all three combined for a perfect 15-for-15 from the free throw line.

Evangel was led by their own 16-point effort from Alexis Roach as Jazzy Kirby and Sadie Chisum both finished in double figures with 10 and 11 respectively as the Valor attempted to use their depth off the bench to keep up with Clarke, playing nine reserves for a total of 14 players seeing multiple minutes on the floor.

With their early start on Wednesday, the Pride will now wait for the night games to be played over the remainder of the quarterfinal round to see whether or not they will host the No. 3 seed MidAmerica Nazarene or the No. 6 seed Missouri Valley for a tentative 5:30 p.m. CT start at the Kehl Center on Friday.