Pride suffer second defeat of the season at the hands of No. 2 CMU

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Looking to exact a bit of revenge from a November loss, the Clarke University women's basketball team fell short of that goal in a 79-61 loss at the hands of No. 2 Central Methodist University on Saturday afternoon.

Hoping to recapture the magic of the 2022 Heart Tournament Championship atmosphere an energetic crowd didn't have the same added affect it may have just under 12 months ago as the Eagles got out to a 7-2 lead then a 10-4 lead early in the first quarter.

The Pride were able to weather that storm, however by getting it back to a tie game at 12-12 before CMU was able to hit a buzzer beater three to end the quarter up 17-14.

That moment was the last time that the Eagles took a lead as Clarke would never be able to even manage a tie for the remainder of the game as Central Methodist would climb to a nine-point lead on multiple occasions in the second quarter before entering the halftime break leading 37-31.

In the second half, Central Methodist used a dominant third quarter to build their lead to double digits and eventaully 20 points at 59-39 with under a minute remaining in the third as they would hold that lead for a majority of the fourth and finish off with an 18-point victory.

Shooting percentages told the bulk of the story as the Eagles finished 29-of-58 (50%) from the field while the Pride shot 26-for-67 (31.3%) from the field as that makes it three conference games in which they've finished under 35 percent from the field, all of which have resulted in losses.

Only two Clarke players were able to hit more than two shots from the field as Mya Merschman and Taylor Haase both provided stretches of solid offense off the bench with Merschman scoring a career-high 22 points on 7-of-10 (70%) shooting from the field while hitting three three pointers in 25 minutes. No one else in the Pride lineup scored more than Haase's eight points as she added seven rebounds, a steal, and a block.

The game's leading scorer was CMU's Leianya Massenat as she scored 25 points while Daryna Bachkarova added 20 of her own and Zutorya Cook scored 13 points as the Eagles didn't miss much production from Leah Johsnon, who battled foul trouble all game to only play 12 minutes but scored nine points in those 12 minutes.

Clarke will have another Wednesday on the road followed by a Saturday at home next week when they face William Penn University in Oskaloosa on Wednesday for a 5:30 p.m. CT tip before hosting MidAmerica Nazarene on Saturday.