The UW-Parkside women’s basketball team could at least take solace in a pretty nice consolation prize Sunday.

After the Rangers’ 68-63 afternoon loss to Drury in their first-ever championship game of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament in Springfield, Ill., Parkside (23-7) received word Sunday night that it would face Findlay (Ohio) (21-8) in the first round of the NCAA Division II Tournament on Friday night in Houghton, Mich.

The opportunity to play another game — in what will be Parkside’s second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, and first since 2005 — will eventually lessen the sting of Sunday’s defeat, according to Parkside coach Jenny Kenesie.

“Today was definitely a tough afternoon. It was tough and our kids, it was hard watching the NCAA bids (come out on a selection show broadcast over the Internet),” she said. “Our kids are still upset ... but our kids understand that we’ve got to wake up (Monday) morning and focus on one thing and that’s NCAA Tournament and Findlay.

“That’s all that’s going to matter when we wake up in the morning. It’s going to hurt here a little bit tonight, but our kids will move forward because they’ve been working toward this for a long time now. It’s been a goal of ours and something that we’ve been talking about since last March.

“I have no doubt that our kids are going to regroup and definitely come focused (Monday) on the NCAA Tournament.”

After trailing 17-10 in the first seven minutes of the game, Parkside held the Panthers without a field goal for the next 10 minutes, 14 seconds.

The Rangers led 33-26 at halftime and twice pushed their lead to 10 early in the second half before Drury (26-6) caught fire, shooting 59.3 percent (16-of-27) from the field in the final 20 minutes.

Lindsey Ballweg, named the GLVC Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, paced Drury with 19 points, and Katie Pritchard (15), Melanie Oliver (13) and Caitlin Shouse (10) also scored in double figures for Drury, which won the league tournament for the second time in the last three seasons.

“They had some kids that just made some big plays, tough shots,” Kenesie said.

In a story posted on the GLVC Web site, Drury coach Steve Harold said, “At the half we focused on trying to get the kids to play within the framework of our offense. We told them, ‘Trust your offense. ... It’s got you 80 points a game this year, so let’s stop trying to make individual plays.’ ”

Parkside took its final lead, 49-47, on Brittany Beyer’s layup with 7:59 remaining, only to have Drury finish on a 21-14 run. UWP pulled within 64-60 on Jadee Rooney’s 3-pointer with 1:32 to play, but Pritchard delivered the knockout blow with a 3 on the ensuing possession.

Beyer finished with a game-high 21 points in what Kenesie termed “probably one of her best games this year, both offensively and defensively.” Brittany Hogen added 20 points and nine rebounds, and Rooney chipped in 14 points and six assists.

UWP senior point guard Amanda Gibson, who tallied 26 points in Parkside’s semifinal win over third-ranked Indianapolis on Saturday, played only 27 minutes before fouling out and didn’t score for only the second time this season.

Painful though it was, Kenesie didn’t pin the defeat on her players being too excited or drained from that emotional victory over Indianapolis.

“I thought our kids played their hearts out,” she said. “We made a good run in the first half there to (take the lead), and it was just kind of a a battle of two teams going at it in the second half.

“We just came up short on a couple easy baskets that we typically make. It just didn’t bounce our way. That’s really what I think it was more than anything. I don’t think we were too high or too low. I don’t think we came off of that Indy game being too high. I thought our kids did a really good job of making sure that didn’t happen.”