INDIANAPOLIS -- Junior
Kendale McCullum scored 20 points and dished out 11 assists and Wisconsin-Parkside earned a key victory with a 92-84 Great Lakes Valley Conference win over Indianapolis on Saturday in Nicoson Hall.
McCullum, who led five players in double figures in scoring, also added eight rebounds and four steals.
Senior
Jake Verhagen scored 19 points and
Alexander Brown added 17 points.
Goran Zagorac had 12 points, eight rebounds and two blocks and
Espen Fjaerestad finished with 11 points.
With the victory, Wisconsin-Parkside moved into a tie with Indianapolis for third place in the GLVC East Division with a 12-5 record but would own the tiebreaker due to its season sweep of the Greyhounds. The Rangers are battling for a top-four position in the conference standings as those four teams will receive a bye in the opening round of the upcoming GLVC Tournament.
Wisconsin-Parkside improved to 20-6 overall and 12-5 in conference play, while Indianapolis dropped to 15-10 overall and 12-5 in league play. It marked the fifth consecutive season in which the Rangers have posted at least 20 wins.
Wisconsin-Parkside trailed 24-17 with 9:31 to play in the opening period before staging a comeback.
Brown converted a layup and hit a jumper and Verhagen drilled a three-pointer to tie the score at 24-24 at the 7:57 mark of the first half.
The Rangers took the lead at 29-28 on a three-pointer by McCullum at the 5:38 mark of the first period and stretched the lead to 34-30 when Fjaerstad drilled a three-pointer with 3:54 to play in the opening half.
The Greyhounds rallied to tie the score 42-42 at halftime when Tate Hall hit a pair of free throws with 10 seconds to go in the opening period.
The teams exchanged the lead in the opening half of the second period before the Rangers took the lead with a 13-0 run.
Wisconsin-Parkside, which made 12 three-pointers, took the lead for good at 66-65 on a three-pointer by
Chavares Flanigan with 9:14 to play in the game.
Back-to-back layups by McCullum and Zagorac extended the lead to 70-65 with 7:57 to play in the game and
Adam Bonk and Flanigan followed with three-pointers to extend the lead to 76-65 at the 6:28 mark of the second half.
The Greyhounds used an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 76-73 with 3:51 to play, but Zagorac converted a layup and a pair of free throws to push the lead to 80-73 with 2:18 to play.
After two free throws by Jimmy King cut the lead to 80-75, Verhagen and Fjaerstad hit layups to up the lead to 84-75 with 57 seconds to play.
Indianapolis was led by King who scored 22 points, while Ajay Lawton finished with 20 points.
Wisconsin-Parkside shot 55.8 percent from the floor for the game, including making 54.5 percent of its three-point attempts.
Wisconsin-Parkside will close out the regular season on Thursday (Feb. 23) when it hosts Lewis at 7:30 p.m. in DeSimone Gymnasium. The game will also mark senior day for
Jake Verhagen and
Alexander Brown.