It was a Thursday matinee Heart Conference matchup between the Park University women's basketball team and the Clarke University Pride to kick off the Spring semester for Pirate athletics. Shooting struggles would ultimately be the Pirates undoing, and they would drop the home matchup to the Pride 64-61.

This loss drops the Pirates to 9-6 overall and 6-5 in Heart Conference play as the season moves past the halfway point. Clarke improves to 7-4 and 5-3 in conference play with this victory.

The Pirates found themselves down early 12-6 despite a three-pointer from Paige Scott and a three-point play the hard way, finished off by Makayla Artis. It was bombs away soon after when the Pride's Maci Kuchta knocked down a straightaway three-pointer that stretched the lead to 17-6. This sparked the first timeout from the Pirates side, as they found themselves down eleven early. The next Pirates basket came on a banked in layup from Kate Sokolova on a fourth chance opportunity, and that was the start of a shift in momentum when Artis converted her second and 1 opportunity. Hailey Walters answered with a shot from deep, but Emma Perry knocked down her own three during a fastbreak that was right at the buzzer. 

Down 20-14 to begin the second quarter, Park made multiple defensive stops in a row, not allowing a basket until 4:17 left in the half. This was offset by the Pirates own struggles on the offensive end during that quarter. Park managed just ten second quarter points and found themselves down 32-24 headed into halftime.

This played out on the statsheet where Park shot under 22% from the floor in the first half compared to 41% from Clarke. 

The second half would start on a different note. The Pirates forced multiple turnovers and used the fastbreak to cut the lead to three after a slicing drive by Nadiyah Cooper. It would continue to be a back and forth battle throughout the third quarter that saw multiple turnovers and hard charges drawn. With thirty seconds left in the quarter, Jordan Bianco went one for two at the free throw line to trim the deficit to a single point 44-43 heading into the final quarter.

Just moments into the fourth, the Pirates took their first lead since 3-2 on a banked layup from Perry, but Walters returned fire with a catch and shoot three to give the lead back to Clarke. That lead would balloon back to six before Cooper and Perry traded layups to force a Pride timeout. The scoring pace started to pick up out of that timeout, and it was all tied up at 53 with four minutes to go after a midrange swish from Scott. This was the closest the Pirates would get. The Pride went on an 8-0 run and was able to out maneuver the press defense from Park down the stretch to get the road win.

The Pirates would finish the game shooting 31.7% from the field and 14.3% from behind the arc. This was a big discrepancy compared to the Pride's 45.5% and 38.9% respectively. 

Park did win the turnover battle, committing eleven turnovers, while collecting twenty from the Pride. 

Perry led the Pirates in scoring once again with twenty one points. She also led the Pirates in three-pointers with two hits from deep.

Artis picked up the most rebounds for Park with nine total and two offensive rebounds. 

The Pirates had nine total steals in the game and used that to score twenty points off of turnovers. 

Park next goes on the road to face the Missouri Valley Vikings on Wednesday, January 8 in Marshall, Missouri. The Vikings currently hold a season record of 10-3. Watch Here

Boxscore

#ParkUNation