Pride survive overtime battle to three-point win over Wildcats

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Playing shorthanded down key players, the Clarke University women's basketball team was able to battle from behind to pull off a 73-70 win in overtime over Culver-Stockton College on Wednesday night in the Kehl Center.

The Pride entered the game down Nicole McDermott due to injury but also had to play a majority of the game without Madison Lindauer as well, resulting in four of the five starters in the game for CU playing over 40 minutes in the 45-minute overtime contest.

Jumping ahead to the late stages of the fourth quarter, a Whynter Waterhouse-Brennan layup gave the Wildcats a 63-56 lead with 3:45 remaining in regulation before Clarke would close the game on a 7-0 run behind hitting 5-of-6 free throws combined between Izzie Peterson and Taylor Haase before Mya Merschman layup with 26 seconds left tied the game at 63-63 before a final stop on defense and a missed deep three sent the game into an extra period.

After another Merschman layup to start CU up two points in overtime, a couple of one-point leads were traded before the game went back to a 67-67 tie for Taylor Norris to knock down four-straight free throws, giving the Pride a four-point lead with under 20 seconds remaining.

CSC would make it interesting with an Avery Oetting three pointer to cut the lead to 71-70 but Merschman would nail a pair of free throws to get the lead back to three before the Wildcats, who could not call a time out to advance the ball with six seconds left, opted for a quick action two point shot but time expired on the missed shot and Clarke would emerge victorious.

Free throw shooting was key to Clarke's success as they only missed three of their 24 free throw attempts in a game where the Pride offense was searching for answers during different stretches due to a heavy trapping zone from the Wildcats.

Clarke turned the ball over a season-high 25 times and shot just 21-of-54 (38.9%) from the field as their struggles were no more evident than in the early portions of the first quarter as they felt the affects of the zone defense and being without McDermott to open the first four minutes of the game 0-for-3 from the field with three turnovers with their first basket coming just under the six minute mark on a Maci Kuchta three pointer.

Culver-Stockton would lead by as many as 10 in the first quarter before Clarke would cut the deficit to 15-7 at the quarter break then open the second quarter on a 12-0 run to lead 19-15 but the Wildcats would rebound to hang around then regain a five-point lead at halftime.

Rebounding was big in favor of the Pride, ending the game outrebounding the Wildcats 51-34 led by Haase's career-high 21 rebounds, good for fourth-most in a game in program history, for her second 20-rebound game of the season as she finished with a 13-point, 21-rebound double-double.

Merschman led all scorers with 25 points while Norris added 17, Kuchta finished with eight points and seven assists, Peterson scored six points while adding five assists, and four rebounds, and Halle Boldt provided four first half points off the bench providing a nice change of pace as a mid-range option in the middle of Culver-Stockton's zone.

Clarke will hope to be back to full strength when they travel to Baldwin City, Kan. for their next game this Saturday against Baker University for a 12:00 p.m. CT tip against those Wildcats.