Fourth quarter surge carries Pride to 57-42 victory over William Penn

OSKALOOSA, Iowa - A one-possession game for a majority of the contest, the Clarke University women's basketball team was able to leave no doubt on their way to a 57-42 win over William Penn University on Wednesday night.

The Pride trailed after a quarter due to a seven-point performance offensively before turning the tables in the second quarter and only allowing seven points on their way to a one-point lead at the break at 25-24. 

CU was only able to outscore the Statesmen in the third to take a two-point lead into the fourth quarter but the Pride offensive finally hit its stride, outscorinng WPU 19-6 in the period.

In that fourth quarter, Clarke finally found their shooting touch as they hit their only three shots from beyond three-point range in the entire game. It wasn't smooth sailing for either team to being the fourth quarter as they went the first 2:55 of the period without any points before CU took struck first and never looked back the rest of the way.

"This was a great game for us to have this time of year because it forced us to fight through shooting struggles," head coach Courtney Boyd said. "Our defense and rebounding kept us in a spot to make runs when we needed."

Tina Ubl led the game in scoring as she scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds as she got some support scoring from the 11 points from Taylor Haase along with 10 points apiece from both Nicole McDermott and Emma Kelchen.

Though not lighting up the stat sheet on the scoring side, point guard Skylar Culbertson had a double-double from a could of career-high marks in rebounding and assisting as she grabbed 15 rebounds and dished out 12 assists to lead the game in both categories.

For William Penn, Alexis True and Ally Stewart both scored in double figures with 13 and 12 points respectively as Stewart was a big reason the Statesmen led early and hung around as she hit four three pointers herself, more than the entire Pride team did in the game.

With this win, Clarke clinched the No. 1 seed in the Heart of America Athletic Conference tournament, which will allow CU to be the home team for every game they play in the tournament.

"They knew this was a big game to secure home court advantage and their fight throughout the game proved they weren't walking away without the win," Boyd said.

The win on Wednesday night also means the Pride hold at least a share of the Heart Regular Season Championship, owning tiebreakers against Grand View in second place as Clarke will clinch the outright title with a win on Saturday.

The Pride will be on the road for their regular season finale as well when they travel to Baldwin City, Kan. to face Baker University on Saturday for a 12:00 p.m. CT tip.