KENOSHA, Wis. --- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball team started of Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (GLIAC) play with a bang on Thursday night, defeating the Michigan Tech Huskies by a final score of 72-49. With the win, the Rangers improve to 5-2 on the season, their best seven-game start since the 2016-17 season.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
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Rasheed Bello paced the offense with 16 points on 7-15 shooting. He also had three rebounds, three steals, and three assists.
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Jamir Simpson finished with 11 points while also bringing down eight rebounds.
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Josiah Palmer finished with a career-high 13 points on 5-11 shooting. He also had three assists and two steals.
- Parkside held Michigan Tech to just 37.3 percent shooting on the night.
- The 49 points allowed was the least in a contest since January 18, 2020, in a 57-45 win over Ashland University.
HEAR FROM COACH Luke Reigel
"I am very happy with our defensive effort tonight. We know that Tech has some very talented young players so we wanted to make them work for everything they got. I think we did a good job of that. Offensively we showed some spurts but I know we can be better going forward. Overall, a good way to start the conference season. Now we will get ready for Saturday."
HOW IT HAPPENED
There was a lid on the basket early inside De Simone Arena on Thursday night, with the first basket coming almost three full minutes into the contest. It was O'Rourke breaking the early scoring drought with a three from the wing. The two sides slowly got the offense moving, with the Huskies holding a 14-13 with 9:00 to go in the half.
Parkside closed the half in impressive fashion. The Rangers allowed just one field goal over the last nine minutes of the half. More impressively, they held the Huskies scoreless for the final 5:42 of the half. The Rangers translated the strong defense to the offense down the stretch. Parkside took the lead for good on a Simpson layup with 4:49 to go in the half. Palmer went on a 9-0 run of his own, knocking down two threes, including one while getting fouled. The four-point play extended the Rangers' lead to double digits for the first time on the night. Bello added one final basket in the half to give the Rangers a 28-16 lead at the break.
Palmer and Simpson led the Rangers with nine points each over the opening 20 minutes. It was a half that didn't include many whistles, with just four fouls being called between the two teams. Parkside held MTU to just 7-27 shooting in the first half, and never allowed a free throw.
The Rangers kept their foot on the gas early in the second half, extending the lead to 15 in the opening minutes on an and-one play by O'Rourke. Michigan Tech made one more push to get back in the game, cutting the Parkside lead to nine with 11:01 to go. However, the Rangers were able to go on an 11-2 run to blow the game wide open. Parkside built their lead to as many as 26 points on a pair of
Sanmi Fajana threes, as the Rangers cruised to a 72-49 win to open conference play.
The Rangers were red-hot from deep in the second half, going 7-11 from behind the arc.
Nick Brown scored all 13 of his points in the second half, while Bello scored 11. Parkside scored 17 points off of MTU turnovers in the second half.
The Rangers will look to continue their winning ways on Saturday afternoon as Northern Michigan comes to De Simone Arena for a 3:00 pm opening tip. Links to coverage including the live stream on FloSports can be found at parksiderangers.com/coverage.
