Parkside 64, Lake Superior State 55
The Rangers never trailed Saturday afternoon and grabbed their ninth win in their last eleven games. They have now moved to 11-8 overall and remain tied at the top of the GLIAC North with an 8-3 conference record.
 
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HOW IT HAPPENED
It was a high-octane first quarter, as the two teams shot a combined 60.7-percent from the field for 39 combined points. Parkside slightly outpaced the Lakers in the frame, and took a 22-17 lead into the second quarter. As the pace slowed in the second quarter, the Ranger lead grew. Thanks in part to seven points from senior Carolina Rahkonen, Parkside extended their lead to ten, 38-28, before the half concluded.
 
The second half was all about maintaining the lead for the Green & White, and they succeeded. Nearly every Laker basket in the second half was responded to with a Parkside basket, and the home team never got within seven. Parkside was led in the second half by sophomore Maddy Harrison, who scored nine of her 16 points in the half.
 
HEAR FROM COACH CONELY
"I thought it was a gritty performance today" head coach Jen Conely said. "We bounced back from the loss on Thursday with great energy at practice yesterday. We really challenged our squad on the defensive end and are so proud of our response and how we handled adversity."
 
"Offensively, we did a great job attacking the basket, we just need to finish more consistently and be more efficient on our reads in our screening action.," Conely continued. "Overall, I'm proud of how we battled! We need to continue to get better and move forward together as we hit the middle of GLIAC play."
 
STATWORTHY
Parkside's balanced scoring attack was led by 16 points from Harrison, who also pulled in six rebounds. Rahkonen was next up with 14 points, and senior Taylor Stephen rounded out the Ranger leaders with nine points.
 
The Rangers shot 24-of-56 (42.9-percent) from the field, 6-for-20 (30.0-percent) from three, and 10-of-11 (90.9-percent) from the charity stripe. On the other hand, Lake Superior State shot 21-of-51 (41.2-percent) from the field, 4-of-10 (40.0-percent) from three, and 9-of-11 (81.8-percent) from the free throw line. The two teams didn't have much to separate themselves when it came to team statistics, but the one thing that was a separator was bench points. The Rangers bench had 16 points in the game, while the Lakers only had four.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Parkside is headed back to De Simone to take on Davenport for Pink Weekend on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 5:30 p.m. Following, the Rangers will host #3 Grand Valley State on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 1 p.m. During that GLIAC showdown, Parkside is set to host a teddy bear toss to help bring awareness and impact children battling cancer in partnership with Advocate Aurora Health. Fans are encouraged to bring a new or lightly used teddy bear to donate by throwing it onto the court at halftime of the men's game. The teddy bears will then be collected and donated to Advocate Aurora Health, a corporate partner of Parkside Athletics, to be used in their Pediatric Department. Bears will also be available for purchase at the game.