Ferris State 78, Parkside 53
Thursday's contest was a highly-anticipated GLIAC showdown, as the top two teams in the GLIAC North faced off. Ferris State grabbed the lead early and extended it throughout the game thanks to a strong shooting performance. With the loss, the Rangers fall to 10-8 overall with a 7-3 conference record.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The game started back and forth until the last two minutes of the first quarter when Ferris State ripped off a 7-0 run to grab a 18-9 lead into the break. The Rangers were chipping into the Bulldog lead early in the second when a three from senior Carolina Rahkonen cut the lead to five with eight minutes remaining in the half. Unfortunately for Parkside, that was as close as they would get, as the Ferris State lead ballooned to 13 before halftime and 25 before game's end.
 
HEAR FROM COACH CONELY
"Hats off to Ferris State tonight, they played really well," head coach Jen Conely said. "We can't always rely on our offense to outshoot our defensive performance. We need to make sure we lock in on defense for 40 minutes.
 
A LOOK AT THE BOX SCORE
Parkside only had two hit double-figures, led by senior Taylor Stephen who had 14 points with five assists, and junior Alisha Murphy who poured in 10 points. The Bulldogs were led by Riley Blair, who had 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting to go along with eight rebounds.
 
Ferris State won the game in large part to the teams' shooting disparities. The Bulldogs shot 27-for-51 (52.9-percent) from the field, and an impressive 7-of-16 (43.8-percent) from three. The Rangers, on the other hand shot 19-for-55 (34.5-percent) from the field and 4-of-19 (21.1-percent) from beyond the arc. Ferris State also won the rebounding (+6) and turnover battles (+4).
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Rangers will look to get back on track as they head to Lake Superior State to take on the Lakers on Saturday, Jan. 25 at noon. Then, the team will head home to face off against Davenport on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 5:30 p.m. for Parkside Athletics' Pink Weekend.