Pride holds off late Pirate surge in 59-54 victory
PARKVILLE, Mo. – The Clarke University women's basketball team held off a late surge by the Park University Pirates to win 59-54 Saturday afternoon in the Beckon Sports Center.
Leading by as much as 18 points with 2:33 remaining in the third quarter, the Pride would finish the third with a 51-36 lead. The fourth quarter was a reversal of the previous two quarters as the Pirates would shoot 7-15 (46.7%) from inside the three-point arc on their way to an 18-point quarter.
The Pride found themselves scoreless over six minutes of game action in the fourth quarter as they turned it over six times, allowing Park to cut the lead down to three at 55-52 as they went on a 16-4 run over that span with Taylor Shelby scoring seven of the 16.
With 1:13 to play, Nicole McDermott scored a layup to put the game back within two possessions at 57-52, and on the ensuing Park possession, turned it over, securing the fifth conference victory for Clarke.
Trailing 14-13 after the first quarter for the first time all season, the Pride turned on the offense, scoring 38 points over the next two quarters while only surrendering 22 as they held the Pirates to 20-60 (33%) from the field and 5-25 (20%) from deep.
Shooting at a clip of 22-54 (41%) from the field, behind the arc it was a different story as they went 2-16 (12.5%) and also went 13-22 (59%) on free throws.
McDermott scored 15 of the Pride's 32 first-half points on her way to a 17-point, 13 rebound game on 6-10 (60%) shooting. Taylor Haase also had a double-double finishing with 16 points on 8-14 (57.1%) shooting and grabbing 11 boards, which is the second time two Clarke women's basketball players had a double-double in the same game this season as the last one came Nov. 11th when Haase and Mya Merschman executed it.
Shelby was the leading scorer for the Pirates, scoring 14 points on 4-15 (26.7%) shooting in 33 minutes of play. Nevaeh Spillman scored 10 points on 3-7 (42.9%) from the floor and had eight rebounds.
The Pride will play their second straight game on the road as they head to Canton, Mo. to play Culver-Stockton College on Dec. 13th with tip-off at 5:30 p.m. CST.