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

Box Score

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Mar. 14, 2015)-- The eighth-ranked University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball squad was unable to defeat nemesis Lewis University for the third time this season, falling victim to a 20-6 run midway through the game as the seventh-seeded Flyers unseated the second-seeded Rangers 70-62 in the first round of the NCAA Division II Tournament on Saturday afternoon inside Bellarmine University's Knights Hall.

The three-time Great Lakes Valley Conferernce East Division Champion Rangers (26-4) owned a 32-29 advantage with 4:32 left in the first stanza after Jordan Mach buried a three. Lewis (22-8) tallied the next seven points to tip the scales in their favor and took a 37-36 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Flyers continued to put its foot on the accelerator, opening the second half by scoring 12 of the first 14 points to stake an 11-point lead with 12:49 left in the contest.

UW-Parkside rallied with an 11-2 run, pulling within a point with 4:55 left after Andy Mazurczak drilled a pair of free throws. Zygimantas Riauka sparked the run with a jumper while Jimmy Gavin collected the next five points, including a trey with 6:32 remaining to give the junior 1,000 points in his Ranger career. A Riauka dunk pulled the Rangers within a possession before Mazurczak's free throws closed the gap to just a single point.

The Flyers' Jeff Jarosz sunk back-to-back threes to establish a seven-point gap and the Flyers led by at least five the rest of the way en route to the win.

The game's opening 15 minutes saw five lead changes and five ties. UW-Parkside established a five point lead with 12:53 left in the first half off a Kendale McCullum layup and led 22-17 off a Chavares Flanigan bucket for the Rangers largest lead of the day but Lewis quickly countered with a 10-0 run to grab a five-point lead of its own.

"Give credit to Lewis, they outplayed us," said GLVC Coach of the Year Luke Reigel, now in his 12th season with the Rangers. "We did a lot of great things this year but unfortunately we couldn't finish this off. Overall, our players have a lot to be proud of and we'll eventually look back at the season as a success."

Riauka led the Rangers with 14 points and nine rebounds, concluding the afternoon seven-for-14 from the floor. Mazurczak and Gavin each tallied 12 points with Mach and Mohamed Mohamed each adding six.

Max Strus proved to be a thorn in the Rangers' side all afternoon, dropping 20 points, including four threes while Jarosz and Ryan Jackson added 15 and 12 points, respectively.

The Rangers shot just 36.2 percent (21-for-58) from the floor, including just 18.2 percent (two-for-11) in the second half from three-point range while Lewis finished the contest shooting 45.6 percent (26-for-57) from the field.

Saturday's game was the third meeting between the GLVC East Division rivals. UW-Parkside downed Lewis 69-65 on Jan. 19 inside Neil Carey Arena in Romeoville, Illinois before securing a share of the divisional title on Feb. 26 with a 73-68 win over the Flyers inside DeSimone Gymnasium.

It was a record setting campaign for UW-Parkside, shattering a 39-year old program record for wins in a season while establishing a new record for wins in GLVC play (17) in addition to making the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season and the fourth time in school history.

The game was the final contest for senior Jordan Mach, Tavaris McNeil, Mohamed Mohamed, and Zygimantas Riauka. The 2015 seniors returned a winning tradition to the program, finishing with a 77-38 mark over the past four seasons with a share of three GLVC East Division titles and a 46-8 record in GLVC play over the past three years.