HAMMOND, Ind. – Jyrus Freels continued his early-season tear with 23 points but it wasn't enough for Purdue Northwest Tuesday night inside the Fitness & Recreation Center. The Pride fell 93-81 to Parkside in the first meeting between the two teams this season.
PNW dropped to 3-4 on the year following the setback as Parkside improved to 4-3.
The Pride led by as much as five in the early going after racing out to a 10-5 lead, but the visitors caught fire from beyond the arc and drained 9 of 16 three's in the opening half. Parkside's lead swelled to 12 in the final minute before
Mikell Cooper's three at the halftime buzzer cut the deficit to seven, 46-39.
"We didn't have the defensive urgency needed to win a GLIAC game tonight," PNW head coach
Boomer Roberts said. "Parkside hit nine threes in the first half, and when a team sees shots falling like that, it can snowball on you. We did some good things offensively, but we never gave ourselves a chance to win it at the end because we couldn't get enough stops."
Freels recorded his third 20-point effort after going 11 of 16 from the field, and the senior from Evansville surpassed 1,500 career points combined in his post-high school career. He has scored 505 points in 35 career outings wearing the PNW Pride uniform (14.4 ppg).
PNW climbed back to within six points when
Xavier Allison knocked down a trey with 13:23 remaining in the game. Then, a jumper by
Vincent Miszkiewicz made the score 62-56 on the next PNW possession. However, that was as close as the Pride would get the rest of the night.
Parkside rattled off a 13-4 run and cruised the rest of the second half, shooting 59 percent from the field in the period. Seven different Rangers finished the night with double-digit points.
Reigning GLIAC Player of the Week Tray Croft recorded all 10 of his points in the second half and finished with 10 assists in the game for a double-double. Brandon Hau also registered a double-double with 14 points and 12 boards. Bryce Prochaska went 7 of 9 off the bench to lead the visitors with 16 points. The Rangers' bench outscored the Pride reserves 37-8
Cooper chipped in with 17 points for PNW while
Gregory Boyle added 13. The junior guards did most of their damage at the foul line where they shot a combined 14 for 14. PNW finished the night shooting 80 percent at the charity stripe.
Additionally, sophomore forward
Vincent Miszkiewicz notched his third double-double outing of the season with 11 points and 11 boards. Junior forward
Anthony Barnard logged nine points and team-high four assists.
PNW tied its season-low turnover total with only 11 giveaways, but Parkside took advantage of the extra opportunities with a 19-5 scoring margin in points off turnovers. The Rangers totaled 23 assists to only nine turnovers.
NEXT UP
PNW will continue this week's homestand when it meets Northwood for a pair of 3 p.m. CST tipoffs on Friday and Saturday. Watch both games live on JEDtv.com.
