FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations

SOMERS, Wis. (Jan. 31, 2013)-- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball team looks to maintain its perch atop the Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division, hitting the road to face Saint Joseph's College today before hosting No. 15 University of Indianapolis for Alumni Day on Saturday.

The Rangers (12-5, 7-2 GLVC)  tip off at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday in Rensselaer, Ind. against Pumas while hitting the court at 3 p.m. on Saturday against the Greyhounds. Live stats and audio will be available for Thursday's game while live stats, video and audio will be available on Saturday. Eric Zizich will be on the call on Thursday while Steve Kratochvil will be providing play-by-play on Saturday with Jim Kramer providing color commentary on the audio feed available online and on WRJN 1400 AM in southeast Wisconsin.

About the Rangers: UW-Parkside is in a three-way tie for first place in the GLVC East Division after shocking a pair of ranked squads at home last week. At 7-2 the Rangers share the top of the table with the University of Southern Indiana and Bellarmine University while Kentucky Wesleyan College and Indianapolis are one game back with 6-3 records.

UW-Parkside began the week with a 77-74 loss to Lewis University despite leading by as many as 10-points in the game. The Rangers regrouped to shock then No. 10 University of Southern Indiana 77-68 on Jan. 24 before stunning then No. 3 Kentucky Wesleyan College 60-59 two days later.

Against USI, the Rangers forced 19 turnovers and generated 26 points from those opportunities while only coughing up the ball on nine occasions and limiting the damage to just five USI points. UW-Parkside additionally enjoyed 25 trips to the line, hitting 21 (84 percent) while the Screaming Eagles toed the free throw stripe just eight times all night.

On Saturday against the Panthers, UW-Parkside led nearly wire-to-wire in the one-point victory. The Rangers led by as many as 12 points in the second half before KWC charged back. Kentucky Wesleyan briefly took the lead with 2:31 remaining but the lead proved fleeting with Nick Neari draining a jumper 25 seconds later for what turned out to be the final bucket of the night as neither squad scored a point in a wild final 126 seconds.

Jeremy Saffold was honored by the conference as the GLVC Player of the Week on Monday, claiming the award for the second time this season.

Saffold averages 19.8 points per game to lead the UWP offense with Zygimantas Riauka adding 12.1 ppg and a team-best 6.3 rebounds per game. Conrad Krutwig is the third Ranger averaging in double figures, adding 11.4 ppg.

Jan. 31 vs. Saint Joseph's College at Richard Scharf Alumni Fieldhouse (Live Stats)(Audio)

Series History: The Rangers and Pumas have tangoed 34 times on the hardwood with SJC holding a 23-11 edge in the all-time series.

Last Season: The Pumas won both meetings in 2011-2012. Host UW-Parkside fell 94-85 on Jan. 26 inside DeSimone Gymnasium before Saint Joseph's completed the sweep with a 76-74 win on Feb. 16 in Rensselaer, Ind.

About the Pumas: St. Joseph's (5-11, 3-6 GLVC) enters the week in seventh place in the eight-team GLVC East Division standings. The Pumas toppled cellar dweller McKendree University 99-80 on Saturday, snapping a five game slide.

SJC is led by Dayvon Sloan, averaging 15.1 ppg and 3.1 assists per game. Sloan shoots 86.4 percent from the charity stripe, ranking him 35th nationally. Damon Ellison Jr. adds 14.4 ppg while Corey Clifton chips in 10.5 ppg.  Jon Smith leads the Pumas on the glass with 5.4 rpg while Ellison averages 4.9 rebounds a contest. Corey Clifton ranks third in the GLVC in steals with 1.93 per game.

The Pumas rank near the bottom of the nation in both rebounding margin and personal fouls per game. SJC is -5.6 in rebounding margin, ranking the squad 262nd of 286 Division II teams in the category while committing 21.7 fouls a game, good for 274th nationally.

Feb. 2 vs. University of Indianapolis at DeSimone Gymnasium (Live Stats)(Video)(Audio)

Series History: UW-Parkside and UIndy have met 33 times with the Greyhounds owning a 22-11 edge in the all-time series.

Last Season: UIndy swept the season series in 2011-2012 as the Greyhounds, at the time ranked No. 21, downing the Rangers 86-73 on Jan. 28 before coming to Somers ranked No. 25 on Feb. 18 and emerging with an 85-57 win.

About the Greyhounds: No. 15 UIndy (14-3, 6-3 GLVC) opened the season with 12 straight victories but has since won just two of its last five. Indianapolis fell 77-68 to then No. 8 Bellarmine University 77-68 on Saturday, snapping a two game GLVC win streak that included a 100-66 thrashing of last place McKendree.

Reece Cheatham leads the Greyhounds with 16.8 ppg with James Hollowell adding 14.1 ppg and a team-high 6.0 rpg. Leland Brown adds 12.3 ppg with Tyrae Robinson adding 8.3 ppg.

UIndy is ranked in the top 10 nationally in three statistical categories. The Greyhounds are seventh in assist to turnover ratio (1.41), eighth in scoring margin (+15.4) and ninth in field goal percentage (50.3 percent).

National Rankings: UW-Parkside ranks in the top 25 nationally in six statistical categories while ranking in the top 50 in eight categories. The Rangers are fourth in the nation (out of 286 teams) in turnovers per game, averaging 10.5 a contest. Saint Cloud State University currently leads the nation at 10.1 turnovers a game. UWP is ninth in assist to turnover ratio (1.4) while sitting 12th in turnover margin (+5.0) and personal fouls per game (14.8). The Rangers are 22nd in scoring margin (+11.5), 23rd in field goal percentage (48.7 percent) and are 26th in free throw percentage (74.8 percent) and 50th in scoring defense (64.2).

Individually, Andy Mazurczak is second in the nation in assist to turnover ratio at 3.4, trailing only Matt Mazarei from Fort Lewis College in Colorado. Bryant Smith is 11th in the same category at 2.84 while Jeremy Saffold sits 26th nationally and leads the GLVC in scoring with 19.8 ppg.

Record Book Watch: Jeremy Saffold continues to climb the program's all-time scoring list. The senior is currently 10th on the list with 1,374 career points. The senior is 46 points shy of Quincy Moman (1999-2003) and ninth place. At his current pace, Saffold is set to surpass Moman around Feb. 7 against KWC.

GLVC Making Noise Nationally: Four GLVC East Division squads are ranked in the NABC Top 25 Coaches' Poll this week. Bellarmine headlines the GLVC contingent at No. 6 followed by Southern Indiana at 13th and UIndy at 15th. KWC rounds out the GLVC East representation at No. 18 while GLVC West Division leader Drury University is among the others receiving votes.