SOMERS, Wis. – In a defensive battle, the Parkside men's basketball team suffered a 57-49 loss to Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday afternoon at Military Appreciation Day inside DeSimone Gymnasium.

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In the first half, the Tritons led by as many as 10 points on three different occasions. With 7:17 remaining in the first half, Parkside trailed 23-13 and finished the half outscoring UMSL 13-2 while holding them scoreless for the final 3:00 en route to a 26-25 lead at the break. Espen Fjaerestad gave his team its first lead since the 18:23 mark on a triple with :47 seconds left.

In the second half, the teams battled back-and-forth for the first 12:00 and UMSL hung on to a small lead for the rest of the way. With 2:00 to play in the game, the Rangers got back-to-back layups by Goran Zagorac and Jonah Matulle to cut the lead to three points, but the Tritons held Parkside scoreless for the final 2:25 and iced the game away at the line.

The Rangers finished shooting 42-percent from the floor and 6-for-18 from beyond the arc while holding the Tritons to 39-percent. Fjaerestad led the way for Parkside, finishing with 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range while Joe Borcia finished with 10 points and Zagorac had nine points and five rebounds.

The Rangers will hit the road for two straight weeks, first heading to battle Quincy on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m.