Pride dominant in 87-75 NAIA Round of 16 win over Lewis-Clark State
SIOUX CITY, Iowa - Returning to the final site of the NAIA Tournament for the fourth-straight time, the Clarke University Pride clinched their third ever berth to the quarterfinals with a 87-75 win over Lewis-Clark State on Monday night in the Tyson Events Center.
The Pride and Warriors kept it close for a majority of the first quarter but Clarke started to pull away around the six-minute mark, taking a 9-7 lead on an Emma Kelchen basket before back-to-back jumpers from Tina Ubl to pull ahead 14-7 to cap off a 7-0 run.
Ubl had the offensive game of her career, scoring a career-high 28 points on 11-of-16 (68.8%) shooting from the field and knocking down all three of her three-point attempts in the game.
One of those three pointers also came off of a Skylar Culbertson assist at the 8:14 mark in the third quarter as the 480th career assist in Culbertson's career, making the East Dubuque, Ill. native the all-time leader for assists in a career in Clarke women's basketball history.
The Pride used their 25-15 first quarter and a dominant 29-19 third quarter to build their lead as large as 26 points halfway through the third quarter to allow head coach Courtney Boyd to use more of her bench, having everyone dressed step on the floor and nine of the 14 play over 12 minutes.
Overall in the game, Clarke shot 29-of-62 (46.8%) from the field and 8-of-16 (50%) from three point range after struggling in both categories in their second round game last Wednesday in the Kehl Center as they limited LCSC to 20-of-72 (41.7%) from the field 7-of-20 (35.0%) from three-point range.
Culbertson finished with five points, nine assists, and eight rebounds on her record breaking night as Kelchen and Giana Michels both finished with 11 points as Kelchen finished one rebound shy of a double-double and Nicole McDermott scored seven points and added a game-high 11 rebounds to round out the starting lineup while Mya Merschman, Taylor Haase, and Madison Lindauer adding 13, five, and five off the bench respectively.
Clarke women's basketball will now prepare for their quarterfinal matchup against Duer Quadrant No. 1 seed Campbellsville University that is set to tip off at 1:00 p.m. CT from the Tyson Events Center.