Rangers’ rebound with win over Highlanders

The Ranger College men's basketball team got back on the winning path on Saturday. In grand fashion.

Days after dropping a tough loss in Hillsboro, the Rangers collected double-digit performances from Jorell Saterfield, Tiras Morton, Trey Tennyson and Nika Metskhvarishvili and rolled to an 84-67 victory over conference-leading McLennan in front of a large crowd in the Ron Butler Gymnasium.

With the win, Ranger improved to 12-4 for this season. More importantly, the victory moved the Rangers to 9-3 in NTJCAC play and into third in the conference standings. McLennan fell to 16-3 and 10-3.

Saterfield helped Ranger get off to a quick start. The sophomore standout pumped in 11 of his game-high 20 points in the first 20 minutes of the contest and helped spirit the Rangers to a 41-33 halftime lead. Morton tallied nine of his 18 in the same span.

Mark Mayle, Metskhvarishvili and Tennyson played well early on, as did Keisei Tominaga. Mayle, Metskhvarishvili and Tennyson all pushed in five points in the first half. Tominaga netted two of his four three-pointers in the stanza.

Ranger salted away the victory with an impressive second-half run. They outscored the Highlanders by a 43-34 margin in the final 20 minutes.

The win was Ranger's second win over McLennan this season. They took an 82-79 decision in Waco on Feb. 24.

The Rangers will return to action on Monday when they host Hill College.