Foul smelling: 17-2 advantage in second-half fouls helps Clarke rally past C-SC men

CANTON, Mo. — The final score read Clarke 67, Culver-Stockton College 64.

The fans at Saturday afternoon’s Heart of America Athletic Conference game at Charles Field House, however, were upset with different numbers on the scoreboard.

The scoreboard showed the team fouls were 10-2 in favor of Clarke, but that’s only because the scoreboard operator stopped putting fouls on the board once Culver-Stockton reached 10 in the second half. The actual foul totals called by the crew of Dave Cusick, Matthew Schaefer and Brett Daffron were 17 for Culver-Stockton and 2 for Clarke.

That difference meant Clarke made 15 of 21 free throws in the second half, while Culver-Stockton made all three of its free throws. 

“They definitely got (to the free-throw line) more than we did,” Wildcats coach Aaron Hill said. “We just didn’t play well enough. It wasn’t the result we wanted. We’re a lot better than what we showed in the second half.”

Clarke (6-6, 2-2 Heart) trailed 55-41 with 11:10 remaining in the game but slowly chipped away by making 13 of 16 free throws. In the meantime, Culver-Stockton turned the ball over six times and missed 14 of 15 shots (including all six 3-point attempts) before Javon Modester scored with 36 seconds to play.

“We turned it over 10 times and shot 29 percent (in the second half),” Hill said. “Honestly, when we drove it, we gave it to them. I don’t think our shot selection was bad. We didn’t value the ball enough. We just didn’t make enough plays.”

The Wildcats led 39-32 at halftime, outrebounding the Pride 26-18 and turning the ball over just five times. Three-pointers by Alonzo Ortiz-Traylor and Jalen Blaize were part of an eight-point run that gave the hosts a 53-39 lead with 11:53 remaining in the game.

Ortiz-Traylor led the Wildcats with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Blaize added 14 points. However, they both failed to score a point in the game’s final 11 minutes.

Saturday’s game was the first this season that Culver-Stockton failed to score at least 70 points. The loss was the third straight for the Wildcats (10-3, 1-3 Heart), who started the season with 10 consecutive victories.

C-SC plays Wednesday at Grand View, then plays exhibition games on Dec. 20 at Missouri S&T and Dec. 30 at Illinois-Springfield before returning to Canton on Jan. 5 to play Graceland.