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

SOMERS, Wis. (Nov. 7, 2013)-- The defending Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division Champion University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball team returns to the hardwood this weekend, opening up the 2013-2014 campaign at Cedarville University's Don Callan Classic. The Rangers begin the season on Friday against Central State University before taking on host Cedarville on Saturday.

The Rangers take on the Marauders of Central State at 4:30 p.m. on Friday before facing the host

Yellowjackets at 4:15 p.m. on Saturday. Both games will be held inside the Callan Athletic Center. Live stats will be available for both games while live video will be available for Saturday's clash only.

About the Rangers: UW-Parkside (20-9, 14-4 GLVC in 2012-13) returns just six players from last year's squad that posted a historic season, securing the first 20-win since since 1986-1987, winning the GLVC East Division for the first time in program history while earning a bid to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time.

Among the notable returners is a pair of GLVC Freshman of the Year winners in Andy Mazurczak and Jordan Mach. Mazurczak was the 2013 Co-Freshman of the Year, averaging 7.7 points per game and 3.2 rebounds per game while leading the squad in assists with 89. Mach returns to the court after sitting out all of last season due to an injury. The junior sharpshooter was the 2011 GLVC Freshman of the Year after averaging 14.0 ppg, shooting 38.8 percent from beyond the arc. Mach averaged 11.8 ppg in the opening 11 games of the 2011-2012 campaign before seeing his season get cut short due to injury.

Junior big man Zygimantas Riauka returns after averaging 11.4 ppg and 5.7 rpg last season with a team-best 37 blocks while Colt Grandstaff is back in the fold for his senior campaign. Grandstaff was a spark off the bench last season, playing all 29 games and averaging 10.1 ppg.

UW-Parkside brought in eight newcomers for the season, including four transfers. Jimmy Gavin joins the program from Bradley University while Latvian native Andis Malahovskis joins the Green and White from Division II Southeastern Oklahoma State University. From the junior college ranks comes Leavon Head (Kennedy King College) and Mohamed Mohamed (North Iowa Area Community College). Other incoming players include Badger State prospects Tavaris McNeil and Mike Novak while Cameron Frank joins the squad from Iowa and Manny Joshua hails from our neighbor to the north, Canada, after spending last season in prep school at Saint John's Northwestern Military Academy in nearby Delafield, Wis.

About the Marauders: Central State finished last season with a 17-10 overall record and a 4-2 mark in the nascent Great Midwest Athletic Conference. CSU played fellow GLVC East Division squad University of Indianapolis twice last season with the Greyhounds prevailing on both occasions. UIndy dominated visiting Central State 100-56 on Nov. 24 before playing a tighter 57-53 affair on Dec. 5 in Wilberforce, Ohio.

The Rangers and Marauders have met on the hardwood three times with the Rangers owning a 2-1 lead in the all-time series.

About the Yellow Jackets: Cedarville posted a 22-9 record in its first season as an NCAA Division II member in 2012-2013 while posting a 5-1 record in the inaugural season of the G-MAC. Cedarville owned a 3-2 record against the GLVC last season and placed third at the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament in March.

The Yellow Jackets claimed victories over GLVC squads University of Illinois Springfield (70-62), UW-Parkside (80-72) and Saint Joseph's College (76-69) while stumbling to Lewis University (70-79) and University of Southern Indiana (61-72).

Cedarville finished off the season strong with wins in 13 of its final 14 games, winning the G-MAC Tournament title and edging Fresno Pacific University 91-82 in the NCCAA Third Place game after falling 79-66 to Oklahoma Christian University in the NCCAA National Semifinals.

The Jackets graduated their top three scorers from a season ago with Brian Grant the top returner, averaging 7.5 points per game.

Last season was the first ever meeting between the Rangers and the Yellow Jackets with Cedarville emerging from DeSimone Gymnasium with a 80-72 victory on Dec. 1, 2012 despite Jeremy Saffold tallying a game-high 27 points.

Reigel's Rangers: Head coach Luke Reigel begins his 11th season as head coach and his 14th season overall at UW-Parkside in 2013-2014. Reigel was named the 2013 Jack Bennett Man of the Year while also earning Midwest Region and GLVC Coach of the Year honors. The Wisconsin native sits second on the all-time wins list with 122 wins and has guided the Rangers to a pair of NCAA Tournament berths.

Returning to the sidelines will be assistants Tom Reigel and Andy Atkins while Keven Bradley joins the staff as the program's top assistant. Bradley joined the program over the summer after serving in a similar capacity at Upper Iowa University where he helped the Peacocks qualify for the NCAA Division II Tournament last season.