Pride finish road trip with 78-62 loss at Missouri Valley

MARSHALL, Mo. - Rounding out their brief road trip against Missouri Valley College, the Clarke University men's basketball team fell to the Vikings 78-62 on Saturday afternoon.

A tightly contested game through the first 12 minutes of the first half saw Missouri Valley go from trailing CU 14-12 to going on a 15-0 lead over the next four and half minutes to eventually hit halftime with a nine-point lead at 31-22 following a late bucket after the Pride cut the lead to seven.

Early in the second half, Clarke was able to cut the Vikings' lead to six twice over the first seven minutes but a 20-7 run this time from Missouri Valley would see them take their largest lead of the game at 21 points with just about 3:30 remaining in the game to all but put CU away.

The Vikings had the efficiency and rebounding advantage finishing 29-of-64 (45.3%) from the field, 8-of-26 (30.8%) from three, and 12-of-14 (85.7%) from the free throw line while Clarke went 24-of-65 (36.9%) from the field, 9-of-33 (27.3%) from deep, and 5-of-6 (83.3%) from the free throw line as MVC outrebounded CU 43-35.

Both teams had two from their starting lineup score in double figures as the game's leading scorer was J'Luan Patterson who scored 18 points on 7-of-11 (63.6%) shooting from the field as Jarrius Burnett scored 15 points and added five rebounds with MVC also getting a double-double off the bench from Vincent Taylor as the senior added 12 points and 15 rebounds in 21 minutes.

For the Pride, Biggie Luster led the team with a 15-point performance on 6-of-13 shooting from the field and 3-for-8 from three point range as Anthony Eddy scored 14 while leading the team with six rebounds as no other member of the CU lineup had more than seven in the game.

Clarke men's basketball will return to Dubuque to prepare for back-to-back home games next week starting with a Wednesday night meeting in the Kehl Center again Mount Mercy University with a 7:30 p.m. CT scheduled tip against the Mustangs.