Pride dominate final 28-plus minutes of Senior Day win over Missouri Valley
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Getting their final home game of the 2023-24 off to a slow start, the Clarke University men's basketball team found a rhythm on their way to a comfortable 74-61 win over Missouri Valley College on Saturday afternoon.
Scoring just 10 points in the first 12 minutes, the Pride were able to take a game where they trailed 20-10 and finish the half on a 17-6 run then also outscore the Vikings 64-41 in the final 28:20 of the game, scoring more points in that stretch than MVC did in the entirety of the game.
With neither team shooting particularly well in the first half, Clarke was able to finish shooting 11-of-33 (33.3%) in the opening 20 minutes compared to Missouri Valley's 10-for-35 (28.6%) as an Anthony Eddy three pointer with about 30 second left was the emphasis on a strong finish to the first half.
Opening the second half with the game remaining at one possession, a 10-0 Pride run would push the lead to nine as CU would take their first double digit lead at the 13-minute mark of the second half and never look back with the Vikings never pulling any closer than a three possession game and Clarke's largest lead climbing as high as 18 in the second half.
Clarke honored four seniors pregame in Demarcus Zaragoza, Chris Burnell, Stefan Vasic, and Daquon Lewis with Burnell leading the game in scoring with 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field while adding six rebounds, two assists, and two blocked shots. Lewis finished with a near double-double as he virtually did it all for the Pride with 10 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and two blocked shots of his own as Vasic added eight points and Zaragoza hit the final shot of the day with a breakaway layup to make sure all seniors got on the board in the game.
Shifting from their normal starting role, both Biggie Luster and Jake Layman added double figures off the bench on Saturday for CU as Luster finished with 12 points and six rebounds and Layman added 11 points and five rebounds while Eddy held the fifth starting spot with the four seniors to finish with nine points, going 3-for-4 from beyond the three point arc.
Finishing with just a 31.8 percent mark from the field, Missouri Valley had three players in double figures led by 12 from J'Luan Patterson while Jace Lance and Jarrius Burnett added 10 points apiece for the Vikings.
Clarke will close out their 2023-24 season on the road for the last two games of the regular season starting with a rematch of their first conference game of the season as they travel to Oskaloosa, Iowa to face William Penn University on Wednesday, Feb. 21 for a 7:30 p.m. CT scheduled opening tip.