LINDENWOOD 75, PARKSIDE 74
It came down to the final shot, but the Parkside men's basketball team dropped the opening game of the 2019-20 season against Lindenwood. The Rangers missed the game-winning layup in the final seconds following an offensive rebound and a putback by the Lions. Redshirt-junior Tray Croft finished with a double-double in his Parkside debut.

HEAR FROM COACH REIGEL
"We just made too many mistakes down the stretch to deserve to win tonight," 17th year head coach Luke Reigel said. "We are going to play a lot of close games again this year and we  will need to execute at a high level if we are going to be successful."
 
FIRST HALF
The first half was back-and-forth, with the teams exchanging the lead 18 times in the first 20:00. The Rangers' largest lead was four points, which came with about 10:00 remaining after a Brandon Trimble jumper. With the score tied 29-29, the Lions connected on a 3-pointer and didn't lose the lead the rest of the half. Lindenwood made five of its final six shots in the half to help the new GLVC team to a 42-36 lead at the break.
 
DOWN THE STRETCH
After a Joey St. Pierre free throw, Parkside took a 72-70 lead with 2:41 to play. TJ Crockett of Lindenwood hit a big 3-pointer to give the Lions a 73-72 lead. After a turnover and a stop on defense, Croft hit a driving layup to put the Rangers up 74-73 with :18 seconds left. On the Lions next possession, Crockett air-balled a 3-pointer, but the miss went right into the hands of Anthony Christian, who layed it in and gave the Lions the lead. Croft missed a contested layup on the Rangers final possession.
 
STATWORTHY
Croft finished with a double-double in his Parkside debut, going for 22 points, 10 rebounds along with a team-high four assists. Trimble had 20 points and six rebounds while St. Pierre had 14 points, five rebounds and six blocks. Redshirt-sophomore Brandon Hau had 10 points and six rebounds. Crockett finished with 34 points for the Lions.
 
The Rangers finished shooting 49.2-percent from the floor, while the Lions went 40.8-percent. Parkside went -5 in turnovers and +2 in rebounding.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Rangers will finish out the Prairie Stars Tipoff Classic on Saturday against the host UIS at 7:30 p.m. Parkside will host the first-ever Parkside Invitational presented by Haribo next weekend on Nov. 15 and Nov. 16 in DeSimone Gymnasium.