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

Box Score

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (Mar. 16, 2013)-- The 21st-ranked University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball squad was unable to contain a blazing hot Michigan Tech University on Saturday night inside the O'Reilly Event Center, falling 86-75 in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Tournament. Zygimantas Riauka headlined the game for the Rangers tallying 18 points in a wild affair featuring five lead changes and six ties.

The fifth-seeded Rangers (20-9) and fourth-seeded Huskies (21-8) were nearly unstoppable from the field, with Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division Champion UW-Parkside hitting 50.9 percent (29-for-57) from the floor while Michigan Tech drained 62.7 percent (32-for-51) of its chances from the floor, including hitting 66.7 percent (16-for-24) in the second half.

"I told the guys in the locker room there haven't been a lot of complimentary things said about this team (on the court) prior to this year. If you said in October UW-Parkside would win arguably the toughest division in the country a lot of people would laugh. Our team believed in it and the guys stuck with it," said 2013 GLVC Coach of the Year Luke Reigel.

"Parkside should be proud of these kids. They represented the University the right way."

Tech staked a 4-2 advantage before the Rangers took over, rattling off the next seven points, capped off by a Riauka three with 16:16 left in the opening frame. The Huskies closed within a point at 14-13 with 13:55 left before UW-Parkside accrued the next nine points, claiming its largest lead of the night at 23-13 with 11:35 to go.

A 14-4 spurt by Michigan Tech whittled the gap to just a point with 5:52 left in the first before the Huskies recaptured the lead with 4:30 left off an Ali Haidar three-pointer. UWP pushed its edge back up to five points before settling on a 42-40 advantage at the half as the Rangers hit 64 percent (16-for-25) from the floor.

UW-Parkside build its buffer back up to five points early in the second stanza off a three the old fashioned way from Andy Mazurczak. The freshman spun around for a layup before sinking a free throw with 16:37 left in the game.

The Huskies stormed back with seven points in a row, reclaiming the lead for good off an Austin Armga jumper with 13:20 left, part of a larger 16-4 run to extend the Upper Peninsula squad's lead to seven at 60-53 with 11:24 remaining.

The Rangers battled back and knifed the deficit to a point at 7:39 off a Kevin Senechalle layup and again 11 seconds later off a Riauka jumper but the Huskies used a 9-0 surge to secure their first double digit cushion of the night at 75-65 with 4:33 to play. Michigan Tech kept UWP at arm's length the rest of the way, maintaining at least an eight-point buffer en route to the win.

"I tried to make Haidar work on defense so he would get tired," said Riauka. "He's a really good player and I wish him the best of luck the rest of the tournament."

"We have a good base for next year but the seniors are really going to be missed. They really pushed us every day in practice to make us better."

Four Rangers finished in double figures with Riauka paving the way with 18 points, hitting seven of his 10 attempts from the field while scooping up six rebounds in 25 minutes of action. Mazurczak added 17 points with 15 coming in the second half while Colt Grandstaff contributed 13 off the bench along with four assists. Conrad Krutwig chipped in 12 points along with five boards while GLVC Player of the Year Jeremy Saffold added nine points and five rebounds.

"Jeremy had a phenomenal year, not only scoring points but giving us leadership and competing in practice," said Reigel.

2013 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year Ali Haidar collected a game-high 32 points along with six rebounds with 24 of his tally coming in the opening half. Ben Stelzer added 25 points on eight-for-11 shooting with Austin Armga adding 16.

"Haidar and Stelzer were phenomenal and we probably didn't have enough options against them," said Reigel.

UWP owned a 36-26 edge in the paint and a 15-3 advantage in bench points while outrebounding the Huskies by a 29-26 margin.

This was the second meeting of the season between the two squads. The Rangers and Huskies met on Dec. 29 with Tech prevailing 69-51 inside DeSimone Gymnasium to close out the non-conference season.

Michigan Tech advances to the second round where they will face host and seventh-ranked Drury University on Sunday.