Milwaukee 84, Parkside 77 (OT)
Parkside hung tough on the road as it narrowly fell to Division-I Milwaukee in its first contest of the 2019-20 season. It was an exhibition game for the Rangers, who's regular season officially opens at the Midwest Regional Crossover Tournament when they'll take on Truman State on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 1 p.m.
 
HEAR FROM COACH CONELY
"I was really pleased with our teams' effort tonight," said head coach Jen Conely. "I thought we battled really hard. It was disappointing to come up short but you got to give it to Milwaukee. They're a well-coached group and we just couldn't come up with a stop at the end. Overall though, I'm proud of how we played and I thought it was good preparation for the season."
 
FIRST HALF
The Rangers got down early, but caught fire midway through the first quarter. The Rangers made seven threes in the quarter, and scored all 21 of their points from beyond the arc. Going into the second quarter, Parkside had the 21-20 lead, and extended it. The Rangers stayed hot from three and used five more threes to take a 43-34 lead into the half.
 
SECOND HALF
Early in the second half the Rangers extended their lead to 10, their biggest of the night, with a layup from sophomore Alyssa Nelson. Following the basket, Milwaukee started a 10-0 run to bring the game to 48-48. Balanced scoring was the theme of the night for Parkside, and it helped push its lead back to three before the third quarter ended. The Panthers came out of the quarter break and went on another run, this time 8-0, to give them a 66-63 lead with 6:53 left in the game. Milwaukee would extend that lead to five when redshirt-sophomore Claire Jakaitis scored five points of her own to tie it up. With time winding down and the score 70-70 redshirt-senior Taylor Stephen had a running shot from beyond the arc to end the game, but it was just right and the game went to overtime.
 
OVERTIME
The Panthers started overtime with a 8-2 run, and didn't look back, as they closed the game out and won the contest by seven.
 
A LOOK AT THE BOX SCORE
Stephen led the Rangers with a double-double, scoring 17 points and dishing out 10 assists. Parkside's second leading scorer was Nelson, who added 14 points of her own. Junior Alisha Murphy and Jakaitis each led Rangers in rebounds with five a piece.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Parkside will head to Quincy, Ill. where the Midwest Regional Crossover Tournament is being held. The team's first game will come against Truman State on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 1 p.m. The next day the Rangers will take on hosts' Quincy at 3 p.m.