Pride rally from down 17 but come up short in 77-70 loss to Marian in NAIA Tournament

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - In their third-straight appearance at the the NAIA Tournament final site, the Clarke University women's basketball team fell in the round of 16 to Marian University on Friday evening by a final score of 77-70.

The Pride fought for the entire 40 minutes, even after trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half as CU went from being down 33-16 with 6:49 left in the second half to tie the score at 52-52 heading into the fourth quarter.

"We talked about how each possession was going to be important today and they made the decision that they were going to chip away, one possession at a time," head coach Courtney Boyd said. "The fight they showed is something that every coach would be proud of and this team deserves everything they earned this season."

In that fourth quarter, the lead never changed in favor of Clarke but the game stayed within at most a six-point lead as the Knights only led by two points with under a minute to go in the game when MU's Abby Downard hit a three pointer with the shot clock running down to pull ahead 73-68 with 39 seconds remaining. 

CU wasn't able to cut into the deficit and Marian hit five of their final eight free throws to hang on and advance to the quarterfinals to face Central Methodist on Saturday.

The trio of Giana Michels, Nicole McDermott, and Emma Kelchen all finished in double figures for the Pride as Michels and McDermott finished with 19 as Kelchen added 17. Tina Ubl added eight points and Skylar Culbertson finished with five points while Mya Merschman added a bucket off the bench.

With her start in today's game, Ubl became the program's all time leader in games played with her 127th game played over her four-year career at Clarke. This becomes the third milestone for the senior over the last two games as she also reached 1,500 points and 750 rebounds to move into fifth place all time in both categories.

Clarke's second half comeback was spurned by forcing turnovers as they forced 12 Knight turnovers in the second half compared to just six for MU in the opening 20 minutes. Despite the turnovers, Marian shot for a high percentage overall and from three point range as they went 28-of-47 (59.6%) from the field and 5-for-7 (71.4%) from three point range.

The game's leading scorer was Marian's Imani Guy as she scored 25 points on 9-of-12 (75.0%) shooting from the field while adding 17 rebounds for a double-double. All five Knight starters finished in double figures as Downard added 13 points, eight assists, and four rebounds with Ella Collier scoring 14 points, Allison Bosse scoring 11, and Kinnidy Garrard finishing with 10.

The Pride will head into the offseason coming off of a 31-win season, the most in program history, after their first ever Heart Regular Season Championship and their second-straight Tournament Championship.

"We kept trying to tell people that this group was different all season, there is just something about playing for each other that you can't take away from them," Boyd said. "You don't get to coach a group like this every year and we wanted to make sure we didn't take that for granted. This is yet another group of Clarke women's basketball players that will be talked about for a long time."

Their fourth-straight NAIA Tournament appearance, one canceled due to COVID-19, and third-straight trip to the final site capped off what could be considered the best season from any team in Clarke University Athletics history.

Clarke women's basketball expects to return their starting lineup for the 2022-23 season with seniors Hannah Ambrosy, Elyssa Stein, and Rebecca Schroeder donning the blue and gold for the final time on Friday.