WORCESTER, Mass. – Clark University men's basketball was defeated by Springfield College, 90-71, as first-year guard Noah Cummings led four starters in double-figures to boost the Pride to the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) victory Saturday afternoon at the Kneller Athletic Center.

The Basics

Score: Pride 90, Cougars 71

Record: Clark University (8-11, 3-5 NEWMAC) | Springfield College (16-3, 7-1 NEWMAC)

How it Happened

Junior Biko Gayman (Fort Pierce, Fla.) registered his seventh 20-point performance over the last eight outings, posting a team-high 21 points on 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. The guard added seven rebounds and an assist in 33 minutes of action.

Sophomore Joel Arteaga (Wyncote, Pa.) offered 17 points on an efficient 7-of-8 shooting on the day while also corralling three rebounds and one steal. Junior co-captain Tyler Davern (Webster, Mass.) narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and ten rebounds while junior Matthew Waggett (Saugus, Mass.) chipped in nine points off the bench.

For Springfield, Cummings paced the offense of the Pride, scoring a game-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting to go with seven rebounds. Sophomore Collin Lindsay and senior Heath Post each tallied 18 and 16 points respectively while Jake Ross rounded out the double-figure scorers for the Pride with 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

The teams matched a bucket apiece over the first 3:38 on the clock as a lay-up through traffic from sophomore Antonio Lapeyrolerie (Plano, Texas) knotted the score up at 2-2. From there, the Pride strung together a pair of three-pointers from Post and Cummings, giving the visitors possession of an 8-5 margin.

The teams remained battling with just under nine minutes to go in the half as consecutive lay-ups from Gayman and Waggett made it a 24-22 deficit for the host. Clark went on to tie it up moments later as Gayman maneuvered through the defense in transition to finish at the rim to make it even at 26-26 on the scoreboard.

Springfield responded with seven unanswered points with a dunk from Post sparking the spurt before five straight from Lindsay gave the Pride a 33-26 advantage. Clark would come right back with a run of its own as consecutive three-pointers from Gayman and Arteaga trimmed the gap to one point with 2:44 until the break. The Pride got out to its largest lead of the half following back-to-back three-point plays from Post and Cummings to make it 44-35 headed into the break.

Post started the scoring of the second half with a lay-up to make it 46-35 before Lindsay canned a triple to up the ante. The Cougars went on a 5-0 run with a lay-up from Arteaga preceding a three-point play from Davern. But again, the Pride had an answer, scoring five unanswered points to re-extend their lead to 14 points.

Clark was able to shrink the deficit to ten points with 11:14 to go as Gayman finished inside to cap off another five-point unanswered drive from the Cougars to make the deficit 59-49. Springfield maintained a double-digit advantage over the remaining time on the clock with nine points from Robert Baum and seven points from Cummings helping boost the Pride to the 90-71 final result.

Clark ended the game with a 27-for-66 shooting effort (40.9%) while connecting on 8-of-23 from beyond the arc (34.8%) while Springfield was 31-for-72 (43.1%) and 10-for-22 (45.5%) in the same two categories. The Pride controlled a 49-37 advantage on the glass while Clark held a slim 36-34 edge on points inside the paint.

Up Next

The Cougars begin a three-game road stand on Wednesday, February 5 when the team travels to WPI for a 5:30 PM rematch in the NEWMAC.