Rangers Fall to Seattle Pacific 61-56 at the Chuck Stephens Classic

Pueblo, Colo.: The Ranger men's basketball fell to Seattle Pacific 61-56 at the Chuck Stephens Classic on the campus of CSU-Pueblo.  Junior guard Matt Rosinski's 16 points weren't even to prevent the Rangers from dropping their third game in a row.

An Alex Potts jumper at 13:44 put Regis (1-4) ahead 14-5, unfortunately that would be the last points the Rangers would score in over eight minutes.  Seattle Pacific (4-2) reeled off 19 straight points over that span to lead 24-14.  The Rangers trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half and went into halftime with a 29-22 deficit.

Towards the end of the first half and at the beginning of the second half the Rangers went on a 10-0 run to close the gap to one point.  Regis led 56-55 after a Seattle Pacific three-pointer at the 2:12 mark; the two teams would then go almost two minutes before anyone would score. 

With just 25 seconds remaining after taking a timeout, Seattle Pacific put the ball in the hands of their top gun, Chris Banchero, who had a game-high 22 points.  He responded by hitting a jumper to put Seattle Pacific ahead by one.

Regis was unable to score in the last 25 seconds and Seattle Pacific was able to get a two-pointer and two free throws to finish off the Rangers 61-56.

Joining Rosinski in double figures was juniors Bill Brandenburg and Joseph Odugbela each with 10 points.  The Rangers failed to hit a three-pointer going just 0-for-2 in the game, but were successful from the charity stripe going 16-of-18, well ahead of their 54.8 percent they had coming into the game.  Rosinski also led the team with five rebounds, while Potts had four.

The Rangers will take on Johnson and Wales tomorrow afternoon at 4 PM in Pueblo.

Click here for boxscore.