Ranger Winner!

The 2009-10 UW-Parkside men's basketball team, with only one senior and a plethora of freshmen, did something only one other Ranger men's basketball team has done...win a Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament game. Parkside posted a decisive 74-60 victory over Missouri-St. Louis, terminating the Tritons season.

Parkside and Missouri-St. Louis both joined the league in the mid-1990's and met in a first-round game in Owensboro, Kentucky. The Rangers will now tangle with the host Panthers, ranked No. 4 in the nation in NCAA Division II Sunday, at 2:00 p.m.

The Rangers (10-18) spotted Missouri-St. Louis (12-16) a 7-0 lead to open the game. The Tritons led by as many as eight with 12:24 to go in the first half. Then, the resiliant Rangers went to work.

The team came all the way back and opened a 31-28 lead at halftime. The guys in green grabbed their first double-digit lead at 44-33 on a backdoor move by Steve Jaskulske with 10:58 to go in the game.

UMSL made it interesting when it cut the Ranger margin to 56-51 with 5:28 to go, before the Rangers pulled away for good.

"This was a huge win for our young guys," said UW-Parkside head coach Luke Reigel on the Coin's Sports Bar post-game show. "This showed our young talent and how well we are capable of playing."

The Rangers had perhaps its best balance of the season with five scoring in double digits. Jeremy Saffold logged a game-high 15 points. Sam Katula added 13 points off the bench. Starters Zach Blesich and Grant Johnson added a dozen each. Jaskulske tallied 10 points to go with his five rebounds.

The Rangers valued the ball, with only two turnovers at halftime and 10 for the game. The team out-rebounded their vanquished foes, 29-26.