First half troubles lead to 93-72 defeat to MidAmerica Nazarene

OLATHE, Kan. – Starting their first of three straight games on the road, the Clarke University men's basketball team were unable to keep up with the attack of the one loss MidAmerica Nazarene Pioneers in a 93-72 loss on Saturday evening.

The Pioneers started the game out on a 15-2 run led by their freshman Mehki Elmore's nine points. The Pride's offense would start slow for a second straight game as they would be able to muster only eight points halfway through the first half, with sophomore transfer Lajarrion Spinks scoring seven of the first eight. The rest of the half saw the Pride trying to gain momentum and a spark to get the deficit under double-digits. The Pride would be able to get enough stops on the defensive end to find themselves down 27-17 with 5:46 left in the half, however the Pioneers would then go on a 21-7 run to go into the locker room up 48-24.

We saw a much different Pride team in the second half across the board as they increased their field-goal percentage by 11% and won the second half 48-45. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make the came within reach as the Pioneers would boost their lead up to as much as 28 points behind the Olathe native, Anthony Brown who would finish the game with 21 points on 9-14 (64%) from the floor and nine boards. Elmore would be their second leading-scorer tonight as he finished with 16 points on 6-10 (60%) from the floor and eight assists.

The Pride were led in the scoring column by Dubuque native, Daquon Lewis and Chadron State transfer, Chandler Dean who each finished with 13 points. Biggie Luster was close to reaching another double-double as he finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. Drake Hammel provided 13 good minutes off the bench tonight as he finished the game with eight points on 3-5 (60%) from the floor.

With finals week coming up for the Pride student-athletes, CU men's basketball will be away from game action until next Saturday as they'll stay on the road for their next game against Missouri Valley College on Dec. 10 at 2:00 p.m. CT.