Parkside 75, Northern Michigan 68
The Parkside men's basketball team stayed hot and got a big home win Thursday night De Simone Arena, beating Northern Michigan 75-68 on Pink Night and a Marquee Matchup powered by Upload Partners, which features a free upgraded broadcast on the Parkside Sports Network. The Rangers improved to 11-9 overall and 8-5 in the GLIAC and have now won six of their last seven games.
 
Marquee Matchup powered by Upload Partners: https://team1sports.com/Parkside/

HEAR FROM COACH REIGEL
"Very nice win tonight, I loved our defensive effort in the 2nd half," 19th year head coach Luke Reigel said. "We made them work both on the perimeter and inside. And even though we got beat up on the boards a little at the end I still liked how we competed on the glass. Offensively we did what we needed to do.  Had a very good mix of inside and out. It's good to stack a few wins because it's not going to get any easier on Saturday."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Parkside got out to rough start, just like they did in Marquette earlier this season in a loss. This time they rebounded after going down 6-0 and later 16-6 to rip off a 16-5 run of their own and take a 23-21 lead. The teams traded the lead back-and-forth and NMU took a 37-35 lead into the break.
 
The second half was much of the same, with neither team able to pull away for the first 10:00. After the Rangers pushed the lead to seven with 9:18 to play, NMU never made it much of a ball game. Parkside's largest lead was 12 points with 6:21 to play after a Tray Croft 3-pointer.
 
STATWORTHY
Croft, the reigning GLIAC Player of the Week, finished with 19 points and seven rebounds while Jamir Simpson scored 14 points and Brandon Hau had 10. Redshirt-senior Ramar Evans had a season-high 10 points. Parkside went -8 in rebounding, but got a big lift at the free-throw line, going 18-of-21 while NMU finished at 9-of-13. The Wildcats did outscore Parkside 12-0 in second chance points off 13 offensive rebounds.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Rangers will hope to keep this momentum going into a tough matchup with Michigan Tech on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 3 p.m. following the women's game. Saturday will be Jockey Day at the Games, featuring discounted prices on all Jockey gear in the Ranger Store.