Wildcats pull away from Pride in 90-61 defeat

CANTON, Mo. – In their final road game until the new year, the Clarke University men's basketball team could not pick up their first road victory of the season in a 90-61 defeat to the Culver-Stockton College Wildcats on Wednesday evening.

The Wildcats were red-hot from three-point range, making 15-30 (50%) from deep, with 10 of those coming in the second half, on their way to a 51-point final 20 minutes, which prevented any chance for the Pride to crawl back into the game.

Like Saturday's game against Park University, the Pride's slow offensive start had the team playing from behind early as they began the game shooting 4-17 (23.5%) from the floor with eight points at the halfway point in the first half.

During that same stretch, the Wildcats shot 8-17 (47.1%) and built a 21-8 lead, which included a 17-4 run over eight minutes after the game was tied at 4-4 at the 18:21 mark.

After scoring 22 points in the first half on 9-32 (28.1%) shooting, CU scored better in the second half, shooting 12-29 (41.4%) from the floor, on their way to a 39-point final 20 minutes.

The bright spots on the Pride's offensive side were Chris Burnell and Demarcus Zaragoza as they were the top scorers earning 16 and 13, respectively. Burnell, tying his season high, went 7-14 (50%) from the floor and Zaragoza, scoring the highest output of his Pride career, shot 3-5 from three (60%) and 4-4 (100%) from the charity stripe.

Culver-Stockton had three five players in double-figures as Tai Walters-Whitaker, Seth Larson, and Cole Schwartz each scoring 14 points to tie for the team lead.

The Pride will host their final game before a holiday break on Saturday, Dec. 16th, against MidAmerica Nazarene beginning at 2:00 p.m. CST.