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

Box Score

SOMERS, Wis. (Jan. 23, 2014)-- Victimizing its second nationally-ranked opponent in as many games, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball team extended its buffer atop the Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division standings on Thursday night, unseating seventh-ranked Bellarmine University 76-74 inside DeSimone Gymnasium. Jimmy Gavin piled on a career-best 30 points off the bench, helping the Rangers extend their win streak to eight games.

UW-Parkside (15-2, 8-0 GLVC) led by as many as 16-points before needing a late defensive stand to fend off the nationally-ranked Knights (13-3, 5-3 GLVC). BU's Josh Derksen hit a three-pointer with seven seconds left to pull within two points of the homestanding Rangers. UW-Parkside turned the ball over on the ensuing inbounds play. giving the Knights a chance to tie the contest with just seconds remaining. The Ranger defense held strong, forcing a turnover as time expired for the team's second consecutive win over a Top 25 squad.

Parkside opened the game strong, with a Gavin three-pointer giving the home side a 16-6 lead with 12:29 left in the first half. UW-Parkside's edge reached 16 points off a Jordan Mach layup with 4:50 left in the half but the Knights finished the half on a 13-2 run as the Green and White led 35-30 at intermission.

Bellarmine tied the game at 42 with 15:23 left in the game before claiming its first lead of the night at 46-45 with 14:18 remaining. A Gavin layup quickly gave the advantage back to the Rangers and Parkside never trailed the rest of the way.

UW-Parkside extended its lead to nine with 4:10 remaining but the Knights crawled back, pulling within two with 84 seconds left. Free throws extended the Ranger buffer to six before the Knights mounted one final lunge, pulling with two with seven seconds left.

Gavin tallied 30 points to lead all scorers, sinking nine of his 14 shots from the field while converting 10 of his 12 free throw attempts. The sophomore additionally dished out a game-high six assists. Zygimantas Riauka had 12 points and eight assists while Colt Grandstaff and Andy Mazurczak added 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Jake Thelen led Bellarmine with 16 points while Vance Hall and Keisten Jones each added 15.

Both teams ended the game shooting 50 percent from the floor. UW-Parkside shot 66.7 percent (14-for-21) while finishing the game 28-for-56 while Bellarmine was 29-for-58 for the game.

The Rangers host their third ranked team this week on Saturday, taking on ninth-ranked University of Southern Indiana at 3 p.m.