Western State 79, Parkside 65

After a career-high performance against UCCS last night by redshirt-senior Blair Arthur, the guard's 23-point game wasn't enough to push the Rangers past the Western State Mountaineers. Senior Georgie Eishold had a career-high eight rebounds to conclude Parkside's trip to Colorado.

HEAR FROM COACH CONELY

"It was a tough loss for us today," first year head coach Jen Conely said. "I thought we didn't come out with the same intensity that we had yesterday and we dug ourselves too big of a deficit to come back from."
"We were down by 22 and cut it to 3 points in the fourth quarter," Conely continued. "We need to be consistent and play our style of basketball for 40 minutes."

FIRST HALF

The Rangers were able to tie the game 2-2 at 9:14, but this was the closest the Mountaineers let Parkside get to taking the lead the entire game. Western State went on a 5-0 run at 6:46 which was ended by a jumper from freshman Hannah Plockelman. To end the first quarter, the Rangers went on a 4-0 run which brought the score to 19-15 and this run continued into the second quarter bringing Parkside's run to 8-0. The majority of this quarter was back-and-forth until the Mountaineers went on a 5-0 run going into half time, bringing the score to 38-28.

SECOND HALF

The third quarter started off with five points from junior Carolina Rahkonen to grow the score to 41-33 as the Mountaineers went on a 13-0 run ending with a score of 54-33 at 4:34 with a 3-pointer from Eishold. The Rangers went on a 12-0 run shortly after, bringing the score to 55-48. As the quarter concluded, Parkside trailed by eight points with a score of 58-50. The fourth quarter started with a 7-2 run in favor of the Rangers that was ended at 5:45 with a pair of free throws by the Mountaineers. Eight of Parkside's points in the final quarter were from free throws by Arthur (6) and senior Asiah Lawson (2). After Lawson's final free throw at 1:43, the Mountaineers defense held the Rangers from scoring until the game concluded with a score of 79-65.

STATWORTHY

Arthur led with 23 points in the game, 16 of those points coming off of free throws. Following Arthur, Rahkonen had 12 points and six rebounds, trailing Eishold who had a career-high eight rebounds. Redshirt-junior Taylor Stephen had five assists in the game. The team went 32-37 from the free-throw line. Although the Rangers never gained the advantage in the game, the Mountaineers finished with more turnovers with 18, while Parkside only made 16 throughout the game.

THANK YOU

"A huge 'thank you' to all of our family and friends that made that trip to Colorado," Conely added as there were over 30 Ranger fans at each of Parkside's games. "We really appreciate their support and I know it was fun to see Asiah Lawson return home and play in front of her family and friends."

"We are grateful for this opportunity to play in Colorado and we are looking forward to continuing GLIAC play this upcoming week," Conely added.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Rangers have finished out 2018 play and will travel back to DeSimone Gymnasium where they will resume GLIAC play against Northwood on Jan. 3 at 5:30 p.m.