Pride fall behind late in 93-83 loss at William Penn

OSKALOOSA, Iowa - In a rematch between two teams that opened their conference schedule against each other way back on Nov. 11, the Clarke University men's basketball team fell by a 93-83 final to William Penn University on Wednesday night on the road.

A game that saw the Pride shoot the exact same percentage of 42.9 in both the first half (12-28) and the second half (18-42), CU's inability to hit threes and the Statemen's uptick in offensive efficiency in the second half led to WPU' being able to pull away late with the game tied 70-70 with just over seven minutes remaining.

Behind a 17-6 run from that point until the 1:40 mark, William Penn finished the second half shooting 20-for-30 (66.7%) from the field in the second half after going 13-for-35 (37.1%) in the first half while Clarke hit eight three pointers in the first half but only managed to hit two in the second 20 minutes.

The number of the night was 24 as three different players in the game finished with the game-high 24 points with two from the Statesmen, Jaz Farrell and Cam Marshall both scored 24 and Clarke's Biggie Luster also scored 24 to lead the Pride as he finished with 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season while also finishing with five assists.

Two other members of the Statesmen finished with double-doubles of their own as Larontae Mormant had 22 points and 11 rebounds while Marcus Bell had a rare double-double without points being one of the categories as he grabbed 14 rebounds and dished out 10 assists for his double-double.

The trio of Carson Lindauer, Anthony Eddy, and Daquon Lewis all scored in double figures as well as Lindauer had 14 off the bench, Eddy had 13 points with four assists, and Lewis finished with 10 points, all 10 in the second half.

Clarke will wrap up their 2023-24 season on Saturday with another road game as they travel to Peru, Neb. to face off against Peru State College for a 2:00 p.m. CT scheduled tip against the Bobcats.