Brown Leads Phoenix Past Wright State, 79-69

#HLMBB Scoreboard (Jan. 17)
Green Bay 79, Wright State 69

FAIRBORN, Ohio -- With seven minutes to play in the first half, hobbled Phoenix senior Alec Brown had just two points and Green Bay found itself tied at 21-21 at Wright State in a matchup between the teams at the top of the Horizon League standings. Brown then scored the next 15 points for the Phoenix to lead the visitors to a 39-36 halftime lead.

Going over 1,500 career points, Brown finished with a game-high 24 points in the contest, and Green Bay (14-3, 4-0 Horizon) used six second-half dunks to fly past the Raiders, 79-69, in front of a national television audience and 6,600 people at the Nutter Center.

Staying unbeaten and atop the Horizon League standings, the Phoenix has now won nine-straight games for the first time since 2003-04.

Green Bay led by as many as 10 in the first half before Wright State (11-9, 3-2 Horizon) closed the half on a 7-0 run. The Phoenix set the tone on its first offensive possession of the second half, throwing a lob to 5-foot-11 point guard Keifer Sykes for a dunk. Green Bay scored nine of the first 10 points of the half to jump in front 48-37.

Sykes, who had just four points at halftime, totaled 14 of his 18 points in the second half. He added seven assists and six rebounds while making 5-of-10 shots from the field and 8-of-8 shots from the line.

Wright State, which entered Friday’s game with a perfect 9-0 record at home, continued to battle and shrank the Phoenix lead. By the 9:45 mark, a jumper from Reggie Arceneaux had cut the margin to 57-56.

Green Bay jumped back in front by five, but Arceneaux made a triple to make it 63-61 Green Bay. Sykes followed with a layup, and on the next Wright State possession Jordan Fouse (Racine, Wis.) forced a steal and threw down a monster dunk over Wright State’s Jerran Young.

After two free throws from the Raiders, Sykes sank a pair of free throws and then a nasty dunk in traffic for a 71-63 lead at the 3:03 mark. Wright State again responded with five points in a row, but sophomore Carrington Love (Milwaukee, Wis.) found junior Greg Mays (Chicago, Ill.) for a baseline jam and a 73-68 lead with one minute to play.

In the final minute, Sykes and Mays had perfect trips to the free-throw line and Mays converted Green Bay’s seventh dunk of the night with four seconds remaining for the final score. The Phoenix made 16-of-19 free throws in the second half and finished the game 21-of-26.

After missing most of the week’s practices with a back injury, Mays came off the bench to score 14 points and grab a team-high seven rebounds. Fouse reached double-figures for the fourth time in as many league games, finishing with 10 points, five rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

Green Bay held a 31-19 advantage on the glass and outscored the Raiders 44-32 in the paint and 14-4 in second-chance points.