Wayne State 72, Parkside 67
The Parkside men's basketball team struggled down the stretch and dropped a road game to Wayne State on Saturday afternoon. The Warriors got a big lift on the glass, outrebounding Parkside 43-23 while redshirt-senior Tray Croft went for 28 points and hit seven 3-pointers.
 
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DOWN THE STRETCH
The Rangers were held without a basket in the final 3:00 after a redshirt-freshman Jamir Simpson layup made it 67-65 Parkside with exactly 3:00 to play. The Warriors scored on back-to-back possessions to take a quick 69-67 lead. Sophomore Colin O'Rourke had a good look at a corner 3-pointer with :22-seconds to play, but came up short. The Warriors iced it away at the free-throw line after a big offensive rebound on bonus free throws.
 
The game was neck-and-neck throughout, with neither team leading by more than six points. The game was tied 32-32 at the half and featured 16 ties and 21 lead changes.
 
STATWORTHY
Redshirt-senior Tray Croft scored a game-high 28 points, grabbed six rebounds and hit seven 3-pointers, which tied a career high. It's his 12^th game this season going for 20+ points. After Croft, Simpson scored 11 points and O'Rourke had eight.
 
As a team, Parkside shot 47.2% from the floor while Wayne State went 45.9%. WSU won the rebounding battle 43-23 and had 22 second chance points while Parkside had 3. The Warriors got a decent lift in free-throw shooting, going 13-of-19 while Parkside finished just 4-of-7.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Parkside returns home this week and will battle No. 5 Ferris State on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, the Rangers face Lake Superior State for Senior Day at 3 p.m. following the women's game.