Pride reach NAIA Semifinals for first time in program history with 76-51 quarterfinal win over Campbellsville

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - In their first trip back to the NAIA Quarterfinals since the 2020-21 season, the Clarke University women's basketball team earned a 76-51 victory over Duer Quadrant No. 1 seed Campbellsville University on Wednesday afternoon to reach the tournament semifinals for the first time in program history.

The Pride got off to a hot start, jumping out to a 10-0 lead over the first 3:36 of the game on points from five different players as they forced Campbellsville to miss their first three shots from the field before cutting it back to a 10-6 game.

Clarke would continue a well balanced attack and strong defensive pressure to lead by eight after the first quarter but a more defensive second quarter would lead to the Pride holding the Lady Tigers to just 10 points in the quarter as they would head into the break leading 42-28.

The rest of the game would see Clarke outscore Campbellsville in every quarter, despite shooting 31.3 percent from the field in the third and 23.1 percent in the fourth but they would go 16-for-19 from the free throw line in the second half and hold the Lady Tigers 2-for-15 (13.3%) from the field in the fourth quarter to hold them to 10 points again.

Senior center Emma Kelchen would finish with a game-high 14 points on 3-of-7 (42.9%) shooting from the field and a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line while grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds for a double-double and adding four blocked shots while primarily guarding the Mid-South Conference Player of the Year in Kaitlynn Wilks as Wilks went 3-of-10 (30%) from the field for just eight points.

Clarke had five players score in double figures while Campbellsville had no player with more than nine points from Sarah Sutton off the bench with the Lady Tigers shooting 27.3 percent from the field for the entire game.

Those five for the Pride were Kelchen's 14 then 11 each from Tina Ubl, Skylar Culbertson, Nicole McDermott, and Taylor Haase while Giana Michels was one point shy of joining them with nine points while adding a game-high seven assists and Mya Merschman scored seven off the bench.

Clarke joins fellow Heart of America Athletic Conference school Central Methodist University as the first two teams to reach the NAIA Semifinals after the early slate of games during the quarterfinal Wednesday as the Pride will await the winner of the 6:00 p.m. CT game in the Tyson Events Center between Iniana Wesleyan University and Dakota State University.