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

SOMERS, Wis. (Jan. 27, 2016)-- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside women's basketball team is back on the road this week, packing its bags and heading south to downstate Illinois for a pair of games against Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division opponents. The Rangers face McKendree University on Thursday before battling University of Illinois Springfield on Saturday.

The Rangers and Bearcats hit the floor at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday while UW-Parkside and Illinois Springfield tipoff at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Live stats, video, and audio will be available for both contests.

About the Rangers: UW-Parkside (11-6, 5-4 GLVC) split a pair of GLVC games for the second straight week, dropping the Thursday game before rebounding with a Saturday victory. The Rangers owned a 19-point led in the second period against Bellarmine University but were unable to close out the game, falling 75-73 before stomping University of Southern Indiana 72-60 on Saturday to finish off the homestand.

Against Bellarmine, the Rangers led 20-9 after 10 minutes of play and had their lead swell to 19 with 6:57 left in the second period off a Rani Singh jumper. The Knights scored the next 17 points over a five minute stretch and trailed 36-34 at the halftime intermission. The Rangers built an eight-point lead with 4:27 left in the game but BU ended the contest on a 16-6 run, scoring the final four points of the game, including a game winning jumper with three seconds left to steal the win.

Stephanie Furr led the Rangers with 20 points, her second consecutive game of at least 20 points while Olivia Montague came off the bench and scoring 13 points in the second half, drilling three shots from beyond the arc.

On Saturday, Tara Knapstein scored her milestone 1,000th career point, helping the Rangers claim their second victory in three games. UW-Parkside took the lead for good off a Furr three with 8:48 left in the second period and never looked back. The Rangers took a 37-30 lead into the locker room at half and hit 10 consecutive free throws down the stretch to fend off a late Screaming Eagle rally.

Kanpstein and Shelby Cheston each had 12 points off the bench to lead the team while Jessica Prince had eight points and 10 rebounds. UW-Parkside finished the game a perfect 14-for-14 from the charity stripe and limited USI to shooting just 29.4 percent (10-for-34) in the second half.

Three Rangers average in double figures, led by Furr who contributes 12.6 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per game. Kristin Conniff has connected on a team-best 28 threes in 2015-2016 and averages 12.4 ppg while Knapstein adds 10.6 ppg, 4.8 rpg, and team-highs of 3.2 assists per game and 23 steals. Prince grabs a team-best 6.4 rpg while Cheston ranks seventh in the GLVC with a team-best 20 blocks.

UW-Parkside ranks second in the GLVC (and 25th nationally) in free throw percentage (75.6 percent) and third in rebounding margin ( 5.6) and offensive rebounds (13.59 per game).

Jan. 28 vs. McKendree University at Statham Center (Live Stats)(Video)(Audio)

Series History: UW-Parkside and McKendree have met seven times since the series began in 1992-1993 with the Rangers enjoying a 5-2 edge in the all-time series. The two squads met twice last season with the Rangers winning both encounters by double digit margins. Parkside defeated McKendree 77-56 on Jan. 17 inside DeSimone Gymnasium while rolling the Bearcats 69-57 on Feb. 19 in Lebanon, Illinois.

About the Bearcats: McKendree (9-10, 4-5 GLVC) heads into Thursday's game having won two straight and three of its last four. The Bearcats lone blemish during the last two weeks was a 74-54 thrashing at the hands of Rockhurst University on Jan. 16. Two days prior, McKendree downed William Jewell College 57-47 in overtime while claiming a pair of wins against GLVC East foes last week, downing Saint Joseph's College 60-48 on Jan. 21 and edging University of Indianapolis 54-51 on Saturday.

Against Saint Joe's, the visiting Bearcats enjoyed a 30-22 lead at the break and maintained a double-digit lead for a majority of the second half in the 12-point win. Against UIndy, McKendree jumped out to a 17-8 lead after one period of action and survived a late Greyhound run, leading wire-to-wire in the three-point victory. The host Hounds had a chance to tie the game with seven seconds left but misfired on a three.

Ellie Puscheck is the lone Bearcat averaging in double figures, contributing 10.0 points per game as McKendree ranks last in the league in scoring offense at 58.7 points per game. Kacey Johnson adds 9.0 ppg while Jordan Morton powers the team on the glass with 5.7 rebounds per game.

McKendree is one of the top defensive teams in the league, ranking third in scoring defense, yielding just 57.4 points per game and third in field goal percent defense (36.2 percent).

Jan. 30 vs. University of Illinois Springfield at TRAC (Live Stats)(Video)(Audio)

Series History: UW-Parkside has dominated the all-time series, winning 10 of the 11 hardwood encounters. The Rangers tallied a pair of blowouts at the expense of the Prairie Stars last season, earning a 71-48 victory on Jan. 15 inside DeSimone Gymnasium before securing a 70-45 in Springfield on Feb. 21.

About the Prairie Stars: Illinois Springfield (6-10, 1-8 GLVC) heads into Thursday's game against Lewis University having dropped five of its last six games. The Prairie Stars' lone victory in league play came on Jan. 16, downing William Jewell 63-52. Since then, UIS suffered a pair of road setbacks, falling 60-53 to UIndy and 65-49 to St. Joseph's last week.

Against the Pumas, UIS piled on 24 points in the opening quarter, staking a 15-point advantage but was unable to hang on over the next 30 minutes as Saint Joe's tallied 20 points in the second and 24 in the fourth to pull out the 16-point win. Illinois Springfield suffered a similar fate two days prior at UIndy, owning a 14-8 lead after the opening stanza only to surrender 20 of the final 25 points of the game in a seven-point defeat.

Illinois Springfield has struggled away from home but owns an impressive 5-2 mark in games played inside the TRAC.

Shelbi Patterson leads the Prairie Star offense, averaging 11.3 points per game while adding 3.3 assists per game. Ashley McHenry tallied 10.6 ppg with 4.7 rebounds per game while Chelsea Cross adds 8.3 ppg. Syerra Cunningham is UIS's top rebounder, grabbing 7.5 rpg while adding 7.4 ppg on the offensive end.

Illinois Springfield sits second in the GLVC in three-point defense (26.9 percent) but struggle in several statistical categories, ranking 15th in the league in scoring offense (59.6 ppg), scoring margin (-5.3) and field goal percentage (38.0 percent) while sitting in the cellar in free throw percentage, hitting just 60.4 percent of attempts.

Knap Time: Tara Knapstein became the 17th Ranger to collect 1,000 career points on Jan. 23 in UW-Parkside's victory over Southern Indiana. Knapstein tallied point number 1,000 on a layup in the third quarter and ended the game with 1,002 career points. The senior is second Ranger to do so in the Jacob Yorg era, joining Gaby Bronson who finished her career last season with 1,015 total points.

Perfect at the Line: UW-Parkside's 14-for-14 effort at the charity stripe in Saturday's win over the University of Southern Indiana was the best Ranger performance at the free throw line (minimum 10 attempts) since hitting all 13 shots in a 73-70 win over the University of Indianapolis on Jan. 28, 2012. It is the seventh time since the start of the 2007-2008 season the Rangers have been perfect at the line, including a 16-for-16 effort in a GLVC Tournament setback to Missouri University S&T on Mar. 6, 2009.

Nike Camp: The UW-Parkside women's basketball program will host the 2016 Nike Camp on July 10-13 for girls ages eight to 16. The camp is the only Nike Camp in Wisconsin for girls and will feature a camper to instructor ratio of 8-to-1. More information can be found at parksiderangers.com/camps.

Mix-and-Match: 12 different Rangers have earned starts the season as the squad has utilized 10 unique starting lineups over the course of the 17 games this season. Kristin Conniff and Jessica Prince have been the most consistent faces in the starting five, both making 14 starts this season while freshman point guard Taylor Stephen has made 12 starts.

Road Warriors: Heavy travel during the non-conference slate, a staple of Head Coach Jacob Yorg, continued this season with 11 of the first 12 games being played at neutral sites or on the road. The season-opening barnstorming tour featured games in four different time zones, including for the second consecutive season, a string of games outside the continental United States. This season the Rangers played three games in Alaska while last season the squad played a trio of games in Puerto Rico. All told, the Rangers will cover over 11,895 miles between the home opener and the GLVC home opener on Jan. 2.

Time Zone Travelers: The barnstorming Rangers had a stretch of four games in four different time zones during the epic non-conference road swing. The streak began in Alaska, downing Sonoma State University 73-63 on Nov. 28 in the Alaskan Time Zone. The Rangers rolled the University of Indianapolis 68-61 on Dec. 3 in the Eastern Time Zone to open GLVC action before falling 67-63 to Saint Joseph's in UW-Parkside's native Central Time Zone on Dec. 5. The streak continued on Dec. 18 with the Rangers routing Concordia University Oregon 65-43 in the Pacific Time Zone at the Sodexo Tip-Off Classic in Seattle, Washington.

20-Win Club: UW-Parkside defeated McKendree University on Feb. 19, 2015 to secure the program's fifth 20-win campaign over the past six seasons. The Rangers have six total 20 win seasons in program history with all of them coming since 2004, including five under the direction of former Head Coach Jenny Knight-Kenesie (2002-2013).

Aerial Assault: Seniors Tara Knapstein and Kristin Conniff have both etched their names in the record book for their ability to shoot the three. Knapstein ranks eighth on the all-time list with 111 threes, sitting nine shy of Jamie Nebel (1999-2003) in seventh place while Kristin Conniff sits ninth with 94 career threes, 17 shy of Knapstein and 26 short of Nebel.

Pod-demonium: The GLVC continues its pod system for the 2015-2016 season, retaining the setup of two divisions with two pods of four. Pod mates will play each other in a home and home series and play all other opponents once. UW-Parkside's pod includes the University of Indianapolis, Saint Joseph's College, and travel partner Lewis University. Pod mates rotate every two years with the Rangers previously paired with Lewis, University of Illinois Springfield and McKendree University from 2013-2015.

Preseason Prognostications: UW-Parkside is picked to finish second in the GLVC East in 2015-2016 according to the league's 16 head coaches.

The Rangers accumulated 97 points and two first place nods to secure the No. 2 position in the East Division. Lewis University collected the remaining 14 first place votes, snagging the top spot in the East with 119 points. The University of Southern Indiana (25-7, 15-3 GLVC) is third with 92 points with Bellarmine University (14-13, 9-9 GLVC) rounding out the upper half of the division, slotting fourth with 75 points.

The University of Indianapolis (12-16, 8-10 GLVC) is fifth with 73 points, followed by Saint Joseph's College (11-18, 7-11 GLVC) in sixth (54 points), University of Illinois Springfield (6-20, 2-16 GLVC) in seventh (32 points), and McKendree University (2-24, 1-17 GLVC) in eighth (26 points).

In the West Division, defending GLVC Tournament Champion Drury University (26-4, 17-1 GLVC) sits atop the poll, raking in 120 points and 15 of the 16 first place votes. Quincy University (16-12, 10-8 GLVC) is second with 105 points and the lone remaining No. 1 vote followed by Truman State University (16-11, 10-8 GLVC) in third (85 points) and University of Missouri-Saint Louis (14-14, 9-9 GLVC) in fourth (72 points).

Maryville University (15-14, 8-10 GLVC) is slotted to place fifth with 67 points followed by William Jewell College (15-12, 10-8 GLVC) in sixth (50 points), Rockhurst University (11-15, 5-13 GLVC) in seventh (44 points), and Missouri University S&T (6-20, 2-16 GLVC) in eighth (25 points).

Home Sweet Home: The Rangers have been nearly unbeatable at home in recent years, winning 77 of their last 92 games inside DeSimone Gymnasium. UW-Parkside was 12-4 at home in 2007-08, 10-2 in 2008-09 while finishing 15-1 in 2009-10, 15-0 in 2010-11, 14-1 in 2011-12, 11-3 in 2012-13, 7-7 in 2013-14, and finished last season with a 7-2 mark inside DeSimone Gym. In addition, the Rangers have knocked off four nationally-ranked teams inside DeSimone Gymnasium since the 2012-2013 season, including a nationally-televised victory over #6 Drury University on Jan. 9.

The Yorg File: Head Coach Jacob Yorg became the program's sixth coach prior to the 2013-2014 season, replacing the program's winningest coach in Jenny Knight-Kenesie. Yorg is no stranger to the GLVC having served as the associate head coach at Maryville University from 2008-2013. Maryville posted a 76-64 record in that span, winning a GLVC Tournament Championship and a GLVC West Division crown.

Yorg guided the Rangers to the biggest single season turnaround in program history in 2014-2015, guiding the team back to the NCAA Division II Tournament while netting a program-record 12 game win streak during GLVC play. Yorg's record at Parkside currently stands at 41-32.

Joining Yorg on the bench this season will be assistants Courtney Boyd, Dean Mlachnik, and Dave Mentkowski. This will be Boyd's first season with the Green and White, previously serving as the head coach at AIB College of Business in Iowa while Mlachnik returns for his second season with UW-Parkside. Mentkowski is also in his first tour of duty with the Parkside women's program.