DUBUQUE, Iowa – For the second time this season, Men's Basketball played into overtime on the road.
After falling in a non-conference game back on Nov. 19 in overtime, Benedictine earned their third straight win with an 81-79 win over Clarke University in overtime on Saturday. The win over the Pride made it three straight for the Ravens as they edged closer to .500 overall on the year and moved to 4-3 in Heart play.
Preston Reynolds scored the first basket of the game, which also gave Benedictine its only lead of the first half. Clarke was hot from beyond the arc early, hitting 3-pointers on 5 of their first 7 field goals of the game. Even with that hot shooting, Jayden Temme hit a pair of free throws with 8:32 left in the half to tie the game at 22. Benedictine wasn't able to pull ahead though, with the Pride building their lead back to six points, 41-35, at the break.
A last-second 3-pointer to end the first half by Sam Ungashick gave the Ravens the momentum at the break and they took control early in the second half. Another 3-pointer from Braden Belt opened the second-half scoring for the Ravens to ignite a 14-2 run that erased Benedictine's halftime deficit and pushed the Ravens to an 8-point lead.
When the dust settled in the second half, the Ravens lead stood at 11 points after they outscored the Pride 29-12 over the first 11 minutes of the second half.
As hot as the Ravens were to start the second half, the Pride were able to match that down the stretch. Clarke used a 15-4 run to tie the game at 68 with three minutes remaining and then the teams played through a lead change each and two more ties before Ungashick scored the final basket of regulation with 1:30 remaining.
Benedictine never trailed in the overtime period. Ungashick and Belt combined to score 7 of Benedictine's 9 points in the overtime with Reynolds hitting a pair of free throws with 54 seconds remaining to put the Ravens on top for good.
The Ravens set a new single-game high for shooting, connecting on 52.6 percent from the floor on 30 of 67. Their previous high was 50 percent, twice, against Haskell on Nov. 2 and their conference opener against Mount Mercy on Nov. 26.
Belt scored a game-high 24 points - one shy of his season-high total - scoring 19 of that in the second half. Ungashick added 16 while Reynolds finished with 14. Temme sparked the Ravens off the bench, which finished with a 14-5 advantage, scoring 11 points.
While Clarke connected on 16 3-pointers, their most 3-pointers on the season, the Ravens countered by controlling the paint. Benedictine finished the game with a 38-14 advantage in points in the paint while they pulled in 40 rebounds – the most rebounds since their overtime loss against Briar Cliff when they pulled in 41.
Benedictine is off for the holiday break. They will return to conference play with three straight games on Dugan Jones Court inside the Ralph Nolan Gymnasium to open up January. First up on the homestead, Central Methodist University at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 4.
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