Pride fight back but fall short in 61-58 home loss to Benedictine

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Back in the friendly confines of the Kehl Center, the Clarke University men's basketball team couldn't defend home court in a three-point defeat to Benedictine College in a 61-58 final on Saturday afternoon.

A rematch of an earlier season meeting that took place between the Pride and Ravens in Atchison, Kan. on Nov. 18 where BC earned a nine-point win, this time they would hold off CU, who would come back from down as many as 11 in the second half to tying the game at 55-55 with three minutes reamining before hitting enough late free throws to hang on.

Benedictine won each have by a point in the first and just two in the second as that one-point first half margin was due in large part to a huge 18-point performance from Clarke's Carson Lindauer as he went 5-for-6 (83.3%) from the field, 3-of-4 (75%) from three, and a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line in 15 minutes.

Lindauer would only add a pair of free throws in the second half to finish with a career-high 20 points while adding seven rebounds and two blocked shots in 29 minutes on the floor while Chris Burnell added 16 points as the only other member of the Pride in double figures.

For the Ravens, both Preston Reynolds and Braden Belt tied for a team-high 12 points as Belt hit some of those late clutch free throws and Reyonlds going 5-of-8 (62.5%) from the field  and adding five rebounds before suffering a late injury in the second half.

The start of the game also saw the rare race to the first basket last nearly four minutes as the two teams combined to go 0-for-7 from the field before Benedictine's Ezrah Vaigafa hit the first bucket of the game at the 16:03 mark with the first of his two three pointers made.

Clarke men's basketball will be back in action next Monday, Jan. 22 when they makeup their postponed game from a week ago against Peru State College in the Kehl Center for a 6:00 p.m. CT shceduled tip between the Pride and Bobcats.