Pride's defense steps up in 65-59 win against Columbia College

DUBUQUE, Iowa – Behind a 17-9 third-quarter advantage, the Clarke University women's basketball team remain undefeated in a 65-59 victory over Columbia College.

As both teams were flowing their offense through the post, Heart Player of the Week Taylor Haase and DeLaney Horstman handled heavy workloads as they combined to score 35 points on 15-40 (37.5%) from the floor and grabbed 34 rebounds.

In the third quarter, however, the Pride were able to shut Horstman down as she didn't score on five attempts and only scored four points in the fourth. Offensively, Taylor Norris had another solid game as she was a major contributor during the 17-9 run as she scored seven points in six minutes of action.

Haase finished her day with 16 points on 8-20 (40%) shooting, five blocks, and is now tied for fifth for the most rebounds in a game with 20.

Maci Kuchta went 6-10 (60%) from the floor, scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds. In 23 minutes of work, Norris tallied 11 points on 4-10 (40%) from the floor and made the go ahead three that put the Pride up for good with 2:14 left in the third quarter.

The Pride was trailing 40-37 at halftime as the Cougars were shooting 41% from the floor, but in the second half, the Pride's adjustments held the Cougars to 20% shooting over the final 20 minutes of play as they could only score 19 points after halftime.

As a team, Clarke shot 28-70 (40%) compared to Columbia's 23-74 (31.1%) for the evening with CU having a 52-47 rebound and 13-11 assist advantage, but the turnover battle was won by CC as they only turned it over six times compared to CU's eight.

For the Cougars, Horstman led the game with 19 points on 7-20 (35%) shooting and had 14 rebounds. Scoring 18 points was fellow starter Mallory Shetley as she played 37 minutes and shot 8-22 (36.4%) from the floor.

The Pride will have some time off before returning to action on Thursday, Nov. 30th at Graceland University beginning at 2:00 p.m. CT.