Big runs carry the Pride to comfy win over Missouri Valley
MARSHALL, Mo. - Closing out a two-game road trip against teams at the top of the Heart of America Athletic Conference standings, the Clarke University women's basketball team earned a statement win by a 77-62 final score on Saturday afternoon.
In a tight start, the Pride put their foot down to the tune of a 19-0 run to finish the first quarter after trailing 7-5 at the 6:40 mark of the first quarter to lead 24-7 after 10 minutes of play. That run would extend into the second quarter to 24-0 to the 6:58 mark of the period and would extend to 26-2 with the Vikings going without a shot made from the field for over 10 minutes of play as they would break through with a three pointer at the 5:54 mark of the second quarter.
During that stretch, MVC missed 16-straight shots from the field and committed four turnovers between made shots with CU's largest lead coming at 29-7 and 31-9 before Missouri Valley would finish the half on a stronger offensive effort to finish the final 5:54 14-10 and cut the lead to 16 at the break.
That would appear to carry a little momentum into the third quarter for the Vikings as they would cut the Clarke lead to 11 at 47-36 in about the first five minutes of the third but that's where CU would produce another important run, finishing the quarter on a 14-5 that started 12-0 from the 4:48 mark to the 1:18 point to grow their lead to its largest at the time of 59-36.
Missouri Valley couldn't produce much of a comeback in the fourth as the Pride would cruise to their 15-point victory and allowing them to have no player exceed 30 minutes played on the game.
Four members of the Pride finished in double figures, all making five shots from the field, led by a pair of 16-point performances from Mya Merschman out of the starting lineup and Taylor Norris off the bench as both also grabbed five rebounds while Merschman had a slight advantage with three assists to two for Norris.
The other two in double figures were Taylor Haase and Nicole McDermott as Haase recorded her sixth double-double of the season grabbing 16 rebounds and scoring 13 points while McDermott was a rebound shy of a double-double of her own with 11 points and nine rebounds while adding three assists and two steals.
CU's secondary scoring came from a strong seven-point, six-rebound game off the bench from Madison Lindauer, five points apiece from both Izzie Peterson and Maci Kuchta, and four points late from freshman Dubuque native Josie Potts.
A key contribution to the Clarke victory came from the defensive effort put on the Heart's leading scorer, Giavanna Moore, as the Vikings go-to offensive threat had one of her worst offensive performances of the season, finishing with just five points on a season-worst 2-of-18 (11.1%) shooting from the field after coming into the game averaging over 20 points per game.
Clarke women's basketball will now return home to play two-straight in the Kehl Center starting with a Wednesday evening showdown between Mount Mercy University on Jan. 10 at 5:30 p.m. CT as following that game, Clarke University will honor the 2022-23 NAIA Championship team with their championship rings with an on-court ceremony.