Pride firmly maintain No. 5 ranking in latest NAIA Top 25 Coaches Poll
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - With just four games and one poll remaining in the regular season, the Clarke University women's basketball team sits at the No. 5 spot in the latest NAIA Coaches Top 25 rating for the second-straight release.
At a 23-1 overall record, the Pride are one of five teams to receive over 500 voting points in the latest poll led by Dordt University's 591 points to sit at the No. 1 spot, where they have been voted in each of the last four releases since Dec. 13.
Marian University received the lone first place vote that did not go to Dordt out of the 21 first place votes give out for the Knights to hold the No. 2 spot with Campbellsville University at No. 3 and Indiana Wesleyan University at No. 4 despite the Wildcats holding a head-to-head win over the Tigers.
Clarke is one of only two Heart of America Athletic Conference teams mentioned in the top 25 poll as their opponent tonight, Grand View University, was voted at the No. 20 team in the NAIA with their 22-3 overall record. The Vikings will visit the Kehl Center for a rematch with the Pride after CU earned a narrow 71-69 win in Des Moines on Jan. 3 with Wednesday evening's game holding large implications towards the Heart regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the Heart tournament.
The Pride near the top 20 in the NAIA in scoring with their 79.6 points per game mark while also holding the 25th-best shooting percentage in the nation at 44.7% and the third-best three-point shooting percentage, making their long distance shots at a 38.7% rate.
That sharpshooting from outside is led by junior Mya Merschman, who ranks third among qualified players in the NAIA in three point shooting percentage as she currently makes 49.5% of her triples while shooting 48.8% from the field and 92.3% from the free throw line to near an unprecedented 50/50/90 season as 50/40/90 (FG/3-PT/FT) is typically the standard.
Merschman averages 15.7 points per game for Clarke to sit second behind senior Nicole McDermott, who puts up a career-best 17.3 points per game so far while shooting 57.3% from the field and 52.8 percent from three point range but does not qualify for what would be the second-best mark in the NAIA if she were to average at least one three pointer made per game on average.
CU's Taylor combo of Taylor Haase and Taylor Norris are also both averaging double figures for CU as Haase sits at 13.7 points per game and is tied with McDermott for the team-high in rebounding average at 9.6 rebounds per game and Norris has been a jolt of scoring energy off the bench all season to a 12.4 points per game average.
As previously mentioned, Pride women's basketball has four games remaining in their regular season starting tonight with the 5:30 p.m. CT tip against Grand View in the Kehl Center before playing host to Missouri Valley College on Saturday for their Senior Day game on Feb. 17 at 12:00 p.m. CT.