DETROIT --- The Parkside men's basketball team extended the winning streak to five on Sunday afternoon, using a strong first half on both ends of the floor to down the Wayne State Warriors by a final score of 66-52. The Rangers never trailed in the contest, going wire-to-wire in the win for the second straight game. With the win, the Rangers sit at 4-0 in the GLIAC, in sole possession of first place.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- It has been 97:49 of game time since the Rangers last trailed.
- Parkside put together their best defensive performance of the season, holing Wayne State to just 7-29 shooting in the first half and 32.3% shooting for the game.
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Jamir Simpson recorded his first double-double of the season, netting 13 points on 5-6 shooting while pulling down ten rebounds.
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Rasheed Bello finished with 14 points and nine rebounds. He also had three assists and two steals.
- Parkside out-rebounded the Warriors 42-30.
HEAR FROM COACH Luke Reigel
"We challenged our players to prove that we can play at a high level defensively in back-to-back games on the road and they definitely responded.
I thought we did a good job of making things difficult early for Wayne State and we got a lot of people involved on the offensive end.
It is a great start to league play with a road sweep. We still have a lot we can improve on. Now we will hustle to get home and get ready for finals week."
HOW IT HAPPENED
Simpson scored the opening basket of the game on a turnaround jumper in the lane and the Rangers never looked back. Parkside opened the contest on a 16-2 run, which was capped off by a
Sanmi Fajana three from the top of the key. Wayne State was able to cut the Rangers' advantage to 11 on a couple of occasions midway through the half, but Parkside was able to respond over the final few minutes of the half.
A 7-0 run for the Rangers included points from
Javon Johnson and a dunk from Fajana, which gave Parkside a 34-14 lead with 3:15 to go in the half. The Warriors got a buzzer-beating three at the end of the half, but Parkside took a 38-21 lead into the break.
Bello had ten first-half points, going 3-6 from the floor and a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line. Parkside out-rebounded Wayne State 22-12 in the first half.
Colin O'Rourke had nine first-half points, going 3-3 from deep.
The Rangers built their lead to a game-high 24 points just under five minutes into the first half on a Simpson jumper. Wayne State made a late run, cutting the Parkside lead to 60-50 with 3:50 to go. Parkside kept the lead in double figures by going 4-4 from the free throw line down the stretch, closing out the 66-52 win.
The Rangers will take a break for finals week before returning to action on December 19th against Lewis University in non-conference action. Links to coverage including the live stream through FloSports can be found at ParksideRangers.com/coverage.
