Keydren Clark: Valuable Rice Weapon
5'9'' sniper Keydren Clark was instrumental in
Rice's convincing CHSAA semifinal round win over
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Xaverian two Sundays ago, collecting 24 points on 7 of 9
shooting, including 3 of 5 from behind the arc. When
Clark gets hot, he is lethal from deep. Clark was a
non-factor in Rice's last few wins, and used his
subpar performances as an incentive to step it up
Sunday.
"I used my last game as motivation," said Clark. "I
wanted to get off to a good start, and I did that."
A slashing drive to the hoop, deep three, and
timely steal by Clark helped to sway the game's
momentum in the favor of Rice during the second
quarter, helping to gap Xaverian early and open up
interior opportunites for seven-footer Shagari
Alleyne.
Kiki is such an asset on the offensive end of the
floor because even when he is not scoring, he is
putting a teammate in good position to score,
possessing good court awareness and vision. Often if
he doesn't have an open look on the perimeter, Clark
will knife through the defense for a pull-up in the
paint or twisting bucket, or he will zip a pass to an
open teammate on the wing. Clark's forte is shooting
the deep ball, but he possesses the body control and
athleticism to get in the gut of the defense and
wriggle free for interior baskets.
Clark recently committed to St. Peter's, citing the
program's style of play as one of the overriding
factors in his decision.
"They play the same style of basketball that we
play here at Rice," said Clark. "They like to run and
gun. That was something that I was looking for in a
program."
Clark also stressed the opportunities for playing
time available at the Jersey City program.
"A lot of programs that recruited me had freshmen at
my position," said Clark. "So I decided to go to St.
Peter's, where they would give me the ball."
Clark, who chose St. Peter's over offers from
programs like Howard and Drexel and serious interest
from MAAC programs Manhattan and Siena, who got
involved late in the process, no longer has to
shoulder the burden of worrying about his college
choice when he is on the floor.
"Now I can just go out there and play my game," said
Clark. "You don't have to worry about impressing
college coaches and getting a scholarship."
Clark is averaging 12.5 points for 24-2 Rice.