Pride survive NAIA First Round Battle to 67-61 win over Indiana Northwest

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Playing the first NAIA National Tournament game as a host team in school history, the Clarke University women's basketball team held off 15-seed Indiana University Northwest on Tuesday night by a final of 67-61 in the Kehl Center.

Clarke got out to a hot start with a lot of the home crowd behind them as they jumped to a 10-0 lead over the first 3:31 of the first quarter and extended that lead to 17-4 at its largest.

But the Redhawks wouldn't back down, keeping it at a 10-point first quarter lead for CU then keeping it within striking distance throughout the entire remainder of the first half as the Pride would lead 34-26 at halftime.

The third quarter was more of a comeback from IUN as they would cut it to a 36-33 game in the first three minutes of the third before fifth year seniors Skylar Culbertson and Tina Ubl helped build a little more cushion for CU, both hitting and-one layups and completing their three-point play to build their lead back up to eight points.

Ubl and Culbertson combined for 12 of the team's 20 third quarter points as Nicole McDermott added four to keep it even between Indiana Northwest and Clarke in that period and head into the fourth up eight.

Again the Redhawks would keep it interested, cutting it to three points again, this time with 2:30 remaining in the game at 60-57 before a loose ball found McDermott wide open for three as the junior from Cascade, Iowa nailed the triple to put Clarke up six with 90 seconds remaining as the Pride defense would finish it off for Clarke to close out the six-point win.

Culbertson continues to play strong in the postseason as she finished with her fifth-straight double digit rebound performance and second double-double of the postseason with 10 points and 10 rebounds while adding three assists. 

McDermott scored a team-high 17 points with Ubl right behind at 16 for the game as Giana Michels and Emma Kelchen finished with eight and five points respectively to round out the starting five for the Pride.

The game's leading scorer was IU Northwest's Michaela Schmidt, who finished with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field while adding eight rebounds and four assists on the night.

With the win, Clarke will move into the second round of the NAIA Tournament to face the winner of 7-seed Freed-Hardeman University and 10-seed Northwestern College as that game will also be in the Kehl Center with a 5:30 p.m. CT scheduled start time on Wednesday.