The UW-Parkside women’s basketball was a little late answering the bell for Sunday’s game against Cardinal Stritch.

After playing the first 17 minutes to a 28-28 draw, the Rangers hit their stride. Parkside closed the first half on a 7-0 run, then routed the Wolves in the second half for a 72-45 non-conference victory at DeSimone Gymnasium in Somers.

“I had to kind of get a little fire underneath them at halftime and get on them a little bit,” Parkside coach Jenny Kenesie said. “I didn’t think we played very aggressive on either end of the floor (in the first half).

“In the second half, the kids responded and did a really nice job of bothering them on the defensive end forcing them into bad shots and quick shots and that made our offense more effective.”

17 percent shooting

Parkside (8-1) held Cardinal Stritch to 17.2 percent shooting in the second half, outscoring the Wolves 27-9 over a 14-minute stretch after the break to secure its sixth consecutive victory.

“I’m proud of my girls for listening and responding to getting on them at halftime,” Kenesie said. “It’s important. It shows that they care about winning, they care about the program and they knew they were better than that. They went out and showed it in the second half.”

Brittany Beyer scored 11 of her team-high 15 points after intermission. Jadee Rooney had nine points and nine assists. Amanda Gibson chipped in 13 points and two blocks. Brittany Hogen, coming off the first 20-point, 20-rebound performance in school history on Saturday, finished with eight points and a team-high 15 rebounds.

Sunday’s contest was the middle game of three games in four days for the Rangers. Parkside travels to Bourbonnais, Ill., to take on Olivet Nazarene on Tuesday.

Kenesie said playing back-to-back didn’t factor into the Rangers’ slow start.

“I don’t think so, we just lacked some effort,” Kenesie said. “We talk a lot about hustle points and doing the little things. We didn’t do that in the first half ... there’s no excuse there.

“We have to give full effort day-in, day-out. We take a lot of pride in that and we just didn’t do that in the first half.”

Compiled by Mike Larsen