Pride fall at St. Ambrose in first road game of the season
DAVENPORT, Iowa - Getting back to action after their opening weekend last week, the Clarke University men's basketball team was unable to get in the win column in an 87-78 loss on the road against St. Ambrose University.
The Fighting Bees would steadily build up a first half lead that climbed to as many as 13 points at 35-22 before a late 7-0 run would cut the lead to five points but an Atem Agot layup for SAU at the buzzer would make it 43-36 at the half.
Clarke would produce a strong start to the second half behind three pointers by Jake Layman and Bryce Luster to tie the game at 45-45 less than three minutes into the half, forcing a timeout from St. Ambrose that wouldn't prevent the Pride from taking the lead as Layman would add a free throw and jumper with a Maximiliano Bowman layup capping off the 14-4 run and giving CU a three-point lead.
No lead would be larger than a one-possession game over the next seven minutes of the game before a 7-0 run from SAU made it 71-64 where the closest the Pride would cut it beyond that point would be 73-71 before the Fighting Bees would close out the final five minutes of the game outscoring Clarke 14-7 on their way to the win.
The Pride finished with five players in double figures led by Bowman's 15 points on 6-of-12 (50%) shooting from the field as he added a team-high eight rebounds while Luster and Layman added 12 and 10 respectively out of the starting lineup then freshman Jonovan Howard added 13 off the bench and junior Michael Kascel posted a career-high 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field.
St. Ambrose had two 20-point scorers as Agot led the game with 21 points on 9-of-12 (75%) shooting from the field while leading SAU with eight rebounds of his own while Will Spriggs dropped 20 on 7-for-11 (63.6%) shooting then Grant Mason added 14 points and seven rebounds.
Clarke men's basketball will return home for their next game when they start Heart of America Athletic Conference play on Wednesday, Nov. 13 to host Graceland University for a 7:30 p.m. CT start in the Kehl Center.