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Box Score

Postgame Interview with Luke Reigel and Jeremy Saffold

GLVC Tournament Website

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (Mar. 7, 2013)-- The 17th-ranked University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball team toppled Kentucky Wesleyan College for the third time this season, as the Rangers downed the Panthers 65-56 on Thursday night inside the Ford Center in the quarterfinals of the 2013 Deaconess Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.

The win advances the second-seeded Rangers (20-7) to the semifinals, to be contested on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. inside the Ford Center against the winner of the University of Southern Indiana-Lewis University game.

“For 40 minutes we competed really hard and for 20 we really executed,” said UW-Parkside head coach and 2013 GLVC Coach of the Year Luke Reigel. “It's tough playing a team for the third time and I'm happy with the results.”

UW-Parkside came out swinging, building an early 11-2 lead just eight minutes into the contest. GLVC Player of the Year Jeremy Saffold was a big catalyst in the run, draining a three to open the game and accounting for five of the 11 Ranger points during the spurt.

The Panthers (20-8) picked up the pace and closed to within three with a Donovan Johnson putback dunk with 6:28 left in the opening stanza. UWP countered and pushed the advantage back up to six before KWC rattled off six straight to knot the score at 18 with 4:11 left. Kentucky Wesleyan grabbed its first lead of the night with 1:34 left in the half off a Johnson layup before the Rangers took a 25-24 lead into intermission in a hard fought opening half.

UW-Parkside surged out of the locker room at half, scoring the first five points of the second half before building a nine-point edge with 14:36 remaining.

The Panthers quickly responded with a layup and a Johnson three to pull within four with 13:10 left. Unfazed, the Rangers answered the call with five straight points to extend the lead to nine before enjoying a 12-point buffer with 8:20 left off a Conrad Krutwig trey.

KWC refused to back down closing within five with 4:19 left but UWP calmly answered with a Saffold three and an Andy Mazurczak layup to push the buffer back up to double-digits. Kentucky Wesleyan sliced the Ranger lead to just five with 90 seconds left but the Rangers closed the game on a 6-2 run to salt away the game and notch the program's first 20-win campaign since the 1986-87 season.

Three Rangers finished in double figures with Saffold pacing the squad with 18 points, shooting six-for-10 from the floor. GLVC Co-Freshman of the Year Mazurczak contributed 14 points and a game-high six assists while Krutwig tallied a dozen points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Donovan Johnson led the Panthers with a game-high 21 points as the KWC bench accounted for 35 of the team's points.

Both teams struggled from the field in the opening half with UW-Parkside hitting 37.5 percent (nine-for-24) while KWC shot a paltry 30.3 percent (10-for-33). The Rangers were red hot in the second 20 minutes of play, sinking 56 percent (14-for-25) from the floor while holding KWC to just 35.5 percent (12-for-34).