Baker defeats Pride 79-69

DUBUQUE, Iowa – In their first home game in 17 days, the Clarke University men's basketball team was defeated 79-69 on Saturday afternoon against Baker University.

A tightly contested first half ended in a 35-35 tie where the Pride would get a quick 6-1 lead early, but that would end up being their largest lead of the game as they would come out in the second half slow, not scoring until the 16:26 mark.

Jake Layman's layup was the first basket of the second half ending an 8-0 run for the Wildcats where they led 43-35, but the Pride answered back with a 12-4 run to go up 49-47 with 13:03 to play as four lead changes kept the home crowd in it until the Wildcats took over the game, thanks in part to Clarke's offense slowing down.

Leading 56-55 with 9:45 to play in the second, CU's offense would only score 13 points the rest of the way as the Wildcats took over with a 24-13 run the rest of the way as they shot 31-63 (49.2%) from the field, including 7-14 (50%) from three-point land.

Baker held Clarke to 25-63 (39.7%) shooting from the field and 5-19 (26.3%) from deep on their way to a 49-27 rebound and 15-8 second chance points advantage.

The leading scorer for the Pride was Chris Burnell's 16 points off the bench in 22 minutes of work as he went 5-14 (35.7%) from the floor. Biggie Luster scored 15 points in 36 minutes of action and came away with five steals on the defensive end.

Quentin Harvey shot 10-17 (58.8%) from the floor for Baker, scoring 21 points to lead all scorers and contributed five rebounds. Ty Henry and Korey Jones scored 12 and 11 points, respectively.

The Pride will have a week off from games before traveling to Parkville, Mo. to play Park University on Dec. 9th, beginning at 2:00 p.m. CT.