Men's Basketball Falls To Crosstown Rival Clark, 70-53

Worcester, MA --- Clark graduate student Nicholas Daprato (Marshfield, MA) went 9-for-13 from the field en-route to netting 21 points with four assists and four rebounds as he helped pace the Cougars to a 70-53 win over Worcester State in non-conference men's basketball action at the Kneller Gymnasium.

With the win the Cougars improve to 4-5 while the Lancers fall to 2-6 on the season.

Graduate student Andrew Musler (Belmont, MA) also propelled the hosts with 18 points and junior Tyler Huffman (W. Hartford, CT) recorded 12. Sophomore Joseph Atkinson (Milford, MA) did a little bit of everything to help his team out with five points, four rebounds and five helpers.

Sophomore Paul Brooks (Arlington, MA) poured in a team-best 15 points off of a seven-for-eight line on the ledger as senior Brendan Rios (Easthampton, MA) tallied 14 points and eight rebounds.

In addition to Noris Cuevas-Nova (Amherst, MA) chipping in with 10 points and five caroms, senior Charles Gunter (Boston, MA/New Mission) and junior Manny Cabral (Roslindale, MA) both combined for eight of WSU's 12 assists.

With Worcester State nursing the 11-9 lead seven minutes into the contest, the visitors doubled up Clark 10-5 as the run was capped off on back-to-back treys by Keeler to help the Blue and Gold open up a 21-14 edge with 11:30 on the clock.

As the Lancers held the 31-20 margin to tie for their largest sum of the frame at the 6:18 mark, the Cougars took advantage of six missed shots from the field and four turnovers and closed out the stanza with a 14-0 spurt for the 34-31 score at the intermission.

Five different players scored for Clark while Huffman and Atkinson bookended the surge with trifectas.

The two squads went basket for basket to start of the second period and Worcester State pulled to within three points with 13:31 remaining following a Brooks lay-up (46-43).

The Cougars though increased the gap by taking full advantage of six WSU miscues over a five minute span in a 10-1 run to go up 56-44 at the 8:20 mark. DaPrato connected on consecutive trifectas to finish off the skein for Clark.

With the hosts ahead 59-49 and 6:41 remaining in the game, Clark never relinquished the rest of the way and finished the contest with their largest lead for the final score.

Both teams shot extremely well from the field as Worcester State hit 45 percent of their attempts (23-for-51) while Clark sank 43 percent for the contest (28-for-65) and jacked nine triples (9-for-22 – 41 percent).

The Cougars also led in points off turnovers (23-12), second-chance baskets (11-7) and fast-break points (12-6) while points in the key were even at 30-30. WSU led in total rebounds 36-32.

Worcester State ends the fall semester on Thursday with a 7 PM game against Western Connecticut at Nichols.

Clark will play in the D3hoops.com classic in Las Vegas, Nevada and face off against Colorado College on Sunday, December 28 at 11 PM Eastern Standard Time.