FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations

Box Score

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (Mar. 9, 2013)-- The 17th-ranked University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball squad was unable to bottle up 18th-ranked University of Southern Indiana's Orlando Rutledge in the semifinals of the 2013 Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament as the Screaming Eagles bounced the Rangers 81-62 inside the Ford Center on Saturday afternoon.

Rutledge poured on a career-high 33 points and the Screaming Eagles (22-6) scorched the nets early to roll into tomorrow's championship game against top seed Drury University.

Southern Indiana tallied the opening eight points of the contest, including back-to-back three pointers to begin the game and held a 19-8 advantage with 11:11 left in the first half off a Rutledge layup.

The GLVC East Division Champion Rangers closed the deficit to just five points with 6:40 left off a Jeremy Saffold three-pointer while a Conrad Krutwig three with 3:34 left knifed the USI lead to just four at 25-21 but the Screaming Eagles rattled off a 13-4 run to close the opening 20 minutes of play, staking a 13-point, 38-25 lead at the break as UWP shot just 34.8 percent (eight-for-23) while USI hit 50 percent (16-for-32) from the floor.

USI enjoyed a double digit buffer the entire second half, leading by as many as 23-points en route to the 19-point decision.

Four Rangers finished the day in double figures led by 15 points from GLVC Player of the Year Jeremy Saffold. Zygimantas Riauka and Krutwig added 11 while Nick Neari had 10 points and a team-best six rebounds and four assists.

Rutledge hit four threes and hit 12 of his 16 attempts from the floor, finishing with 33 points and 11 boards to pace USI. Keith DeWitt tallied 12 while Manny Ogunfolu contributed 10 points off the bench.

UW-Parkside finished the game shooting just 37.5 percent (21-for-56) while the Eagles hit 49.2 percent (32-for-65) from the floor. UWP owned a 12-6 edge in points off turnovers while USI held a 22-11 edge in bench points and a 20-11 advantage in second chance points.

The game was UW-Parkside's ninth this season against a ranked foe, compiling a 7-2 mark in those contests.

The Rangers will learn their NCAA tournament fate on Sunday night when the NCAA Division II selection committee unveils the 64-team bracket.