Pride fall to Benedictine 79-70

ATCHISON, Kan. – In their second road game of the season, the Clarke University men's basketball team was defeated 79-70 against Benedictine College.

It was a tight game throughout with the difference coming over the final six minutes when the Ravens offense went to their closer in leading scorer Brycen LaRue who had 12 points over the final 6:12 of regulation to seal the win.

The Pride were trailing 59-58 with six and a half minutes remaining, but could only score five points over the next four minutes of gameplay which ended in them trailing 69-63 with over two minutes to play.

A few possessions later after a couple of Ravens free throws and a Daquon Lewis layup made the score 71-65, Rob Chaney scored three of his 17 points with 1:19 to play to cut the BC lead down to 71-68. This would be as close as the CU would get as they would be forced to play the foul game the rest of the way and the Ravens shot 20-26 (76.9%) from the free-throw line on the evening.

LaRue finished the game as the leading scorer for BC with 22 points on 7-9 (77.8%) shooting, including 3-3 (100%) from three. Braden Belt and Gino Corridori were also in double figures scoring with 13 and 16, respectively.

Coming into tonight's contest, the Pride was shooting 45-138 (32.7%) from three-point land, but tonight shot 4-23 (17.4%) compared to the Ravens 7-14 (50%) from deep.

Biggie Luster led Clarke with 23 points on 9-14 (64.2%) shooting from the floor and also made five steals defensively. After Chaney's 17 points on 5-7 (71.4%) shooting, Pride forward Jake Layman also had a double-digit performance with 14 points and snagging 13 rebounds for his first Pride double-double.

The Pride will have some time to enjoy the holiday and prepare to play at Graceland University on Nov. 30th beginning at 4:00 p.m. CT.