Pride fall in tight one-point final to Benedictine
DUBUQUE, Iowa - At the beginning of a three-game homestand, the Clarke University women's basketball team suffered their first loss of the 2023-24 season to Benedictine College by a tight 62-61 final score on Saturday afternoon.
In a game where the Pride never led, both teams struggled to find offensive rhythm over various parts of the contest with CU finishing the game shooting 21-of-53 (39.6%) from the field, 4-of-12 (33.3%) from three point range, and 15-of-22 (68.2%) from the free throw line.
There was a distinct advantage for Clarke in free throw attempts with the Ravens only taking five all game compared to the 22 for the Pride but the seven misses came back to haunt CU in the one-point defeat.
Their opponents in Benedictine were able to shoot a slightly better 26-of-63 (41.3%) from the field while going 6-of-24 (24%) from three and hitting all but one of those previously mentioned five free throws for an 80 percent mark from the charity stripe.
A large part of the reason the Ravens attempted 10 more shots than CU was a significant advantage on the boards as they grabbed 46 rebounds to just 28 by the Pride with CU being limited to just five offensive rebounds compared to 14 for BC that led to 16 second chance points for Benedictine.
Saturday saw Clarke's Taylor Haase record a game-high 18 points that saw the senior post player cross the 1,000-point threshold in her career to become the 18th member of CU women's basketball to reach the total as she also grabbed 11 of the Pride's 28 rebounds for her eighth double-double of the season.
The only other member of the Pride in double figures was Nicole McDermott as she added 15 but shot below her season percentage going 6-of-14 (42.8%) from the field while Taylor Norris had nine off the bench and Mya Merschman scored eight as the next largest points totals on the team.
Benedictine had similar individual scoring outputs led by Aaliyah Raines' 16 points as she scored half of her points in a 4-for-5 fourth quarter to produce some clutch buckets with Clarke looking to mount a comeback in the late moments.
Joining Raines in double figures were Kennedy Nicholson with 112 points, hitting three of the team's six three pointers, and Nicole Storck with 10 off the bench as Storck attempted all five of the Ravens free throws in the game.
The final sequence off the game saw the Ravens with possession and 34.7 seconds left on the clock, Clarke elected to play defense with close to a five second difference between game clock and shot clock but Benedictine exhausted all of the shot clock, missed their shot attempt allowing not enough time for the Pride to grab the rebound and advance the ball either in the moment or with a timeout, sealing that 62-61 final.
Clarke will get back to action on Monday, Jan. 22 when they makeup a postponed game from last Saturday against Peru State College for a 4:00 p.m. CT scheduled tip against the Bobcats in the Kehl Center.