Michigan Tech 59, Parkside 53
In their first game in 17 days, the Parkside men's basketball team fell on the road to Michigan Tech Thursday night 59-53. It was the lowest number of points given up by the Parkside defense this season, but the Rangers couldn't overcome a cold shooting night in Houghton, Mich.
 
Parkside falls to 5-7 overall and 2-3 in the GLIAC while the Huskies improved to 8-3 overall and 4-1 in the GLIAC.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The teams traded the lead back-and-forth in the first half, with the Rangers jumping out to a 7-point advantage after a Brandon Hau layup with 7:27 to play. The Huskies followed that with a 10-0 run to erase the lead and the teams went to the locker room with MTU leading 34-32.
 
In the second half, MTU quickly jumped out to a 9-point lead, but Parkside rallied to tie it up at 41-41 with 15:10 to play, but the Rangers would not grab a lead the rest of the way as the offense went cold. While Parkside was limited to seven points in the final 10-minutes of the game, the defense held strong to keep the game close until the end.
 
STATWORTHY
Redshirt-senior Tray Croft led the way with 16 points for the Rangers and redshirt-freshman Jamir Simpson finished with 11 points and five rebounds. Hau, in his first game of the season, finished with nine points and eight rebounds and freshman Rasheed Bello had four points and eight rebounds.
 
The Rangers shot 33.3% from the floor and went 4-of-18 from beyond the arc. They finished +5 in the turnover battle and went -1 in rebounding.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Rangers will stay up in the Upper Peninsula and battle Northern Michigan on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 12:15 p.m. The women's game on Saturday has been postponed due to health and safety protocols. Parkside returns home for a Monday afternoon matchup on Jan. 17 at 3 p.m. in De Simone Arena.