Fourth quarter comeback falls short in women's basketball Senior Day game
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Hosting their final home game of the 2025-26 regular season, the Clarke University women's basketball team dropped their second matchup of the year to Peru State College by a final score of 78-67 in the Kehl Center on Saturday afternoon.
After the conclusion of the game, the Pride recognized their lone senior on the team for this season in guard Hailey Walters as the Sterling, Ill. native competed in her final home game since transferring from Sauk Valley Community College playing the final two seasons of her collegiate career to start all but one game so far in her time at CU.
To the game on the court, all but the first quarter were as tight as can be with the visitors outdoing Clarke by at least a point in each quarter with a 20-13 first quarter ending up mattering more than it would appear as the Bobcats took what was an 11-9 lead and finished the final three minutes of the quarter outscoring CU 9-4.
Early on in the second period, PSC would take a significant hit to their already tight rotation as starting guard MaKinley Tobey was assessed a flagrant two foul and ejected from the game with 8:36 left to go in the half after she grabbed a defensive rebound and swung an elbow towards the head of Walters, deemed by the officials worthy of the flagrant two penalty, ending the sophomore's day after just 12 minutes of action.
Despite only going to battle with a six-woman rotation for the remainder of the game, Peru State didn't show any early signs of slowing down able to grow their lead to eight by halftime then taking their largest lead of the game at 15 points with just under three minutes left in the third quarter, leading by a score of 48-33.
The Pride rallied strong to end the third, cutting the lead to 10 at 52-42 as the fourth quarter become Zoe Kennedy time for the second-straight home game as the junior guard attempted her best to put the team on her shoulders and score 18 of the team's 25 points in the final 10 minutes just three days after producing a 16-point fourth in a comeback win over William Penn.
Trailing 57-45 with 7:15 left, Kennedy went to the line and knocked down one of two free throws that started a stretch where she scored 18 of the next 20 Clarke points, with a layup through a foul at the 1:53 mark able to cut the Peru State lead to just two points at 67-65 as PSC's Kylie Diaz was nearly going shot-for-shot with Kennedy.
The next possession for the Bobcats, Diaz would draw the eyes of the CU defense and pass to an open Savannah Bingham in the far corner who knocked down her only three pointer of the game before Katelyn Sanders, the primary replacement for the ejected Tobey, hit her second triple after Diaz snagged an offensive rebound off of a missed free throw to make it a four-point possession and essentially ice the game at a nine-point lead for PSC at 74-65.
Kennedy finished with a team-high 26 points but struggled a bit from the field early to go 10-for-22 (45.5%) for the game while adding eight rebounds, three assists, and three steals while Diaz finished at a game-high 30 points and 14 rebounds while adding seven assists, five steals, and three blocked.
The battle of the top-two scorers by average in the Heart of America Athletic Conference truly came down to each supporting cast with the Bobcats also having three other members of the lineup produce double figures with Erison Vonderschmidt, the Heart's third leading scorer, add 13 points with both Bingham and Sanders also finishing the day at 11 points while the next highest point total for Clarke behind Kennedy was nine from Walters, who was limited in minutes due to foul trouble for most of the game, eventually fouling out in the fourth quarter.
Now with two games left in the regular season, Clarke women's basketball will be on the road for both next week starting with a Wednesday night rematch against Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a 5:30 p.m. CT scheduled opening tip on Feb. 18.