Green Bay and Wright State hold on for #HLMBB Wins

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 19)
Wright State 49, Cleveland State 46
Green Bay 69, UIC 64

Wright State 49, Cleveland State 46
The Wright State men’s basketball team held off a late Cleveland State comeback to defeat the Vikings 49-46 in Horizon League action at Sunday afternoon at the Wolstein Center.

Wright State jumped out to an 11-5 advantage thanks in part to a Jerran Young three and a Matt Vest dunk, only to see the Vikings go on a 14-3 run over the next five minutes to take a 19-14 lead with 7:12 remaining in the first half.

Wright State, though, answered with nine straight points, the first four coming from Miles Dixon, and led 29-23 at the halftime break as the senior guard connected on jumper just ahead of the buzzer.

The Raiders opened up their largest lead of the game with eight minutes to play on a Kendall Griffin three-pointer, but a Harris tip-in and Lewis three-pointer brought the Vikings back within eight with 6:37 to play.

But a three-point play by Young on the next possession extended the Wright State lead back to 11 points. After two Harris free throws, Matt Vest scored on a breakaway dunk to push the Raider lead back to nine with 3:15 to play. It would be the last points of the afternoon for Wright State as the Vikings held the Raiders to a pair of missed shots and a 35-second shot clock violation on their final three possessions.

A Devon Long offensive rebound and putback, a Harris baseline dunk and Lewis floater in the lane brought the Vikings back within three with 44 seconds to play and after the Wright State shot clock violation, the Vikings had a chance to send the game into overtime. Lewis' desperation three-pointer from the left wing was on line, but was just long.

Cleveland State shot 16-of-49 (.327), while the Raiders were 18-of-54 (.333). The Vikings held a 37-32 advantage on the glass.

Young led the way for Wright State with 10 off the bench while Vest had nine and Cole Darling seven.

Jon Harris paced Cleveland State with a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds off the bench while Bryn Forbes had 14.  Lewis added 10 rebounds.

Wright State (12-9, 4-2 Horizon) closes out a stretch of three games in five days on Tuesday, January 21, as the Raiders host Milwaukee at 7:00.

The Vikings are back in action on Wednesday, January 22, when Cleveland State travels to UIC for an 8:00 p.m. EST contest.

Green Bay 69, UIC 64
CHICAGO, Ill. – For the second-straight Sunday, the Green Bay men’s basketball team found itself in a second half hole down the stretch of a Horizon League road game. UIC used a 13-2 run early in the second half to go in front, 50-42, but the Phoenix outscored the Flames, 8-1, in the final four minutes to record their 10th straight win, defeating UIC 69-64.

UIC owned the lead for 14 minutes and 21 seconds in the second half before a Keifer Sykes alley-oop dunk spurred the Phoenix rally.  Freshman Pat Birt paced UIC with 13 points, while senior Jordan Harks added 11, 10 of those coming in the second half.   Green Bay was led by senior center Alec Brown with a game-high 23 points, shooting 9-of-11 from the field, and Sykes with 21.

Green Bay led by as much as 10 points early in the contest, but the Flames kept fighting and outscored the Phoenix 21-12 over the next 10 minutes to pull within one at the 2:31 mark.  Senior Hayden Humes capped the spurt with his 115th made three-pointer as a Flame, needing just one more to crack UIC's all-time top-10 leaderboard.

Green Bay owned a 33-29 edge at the break due in large part to Brown's 13 first-half points that included 6-of-7 from the field.  The Flames received 14 points from the bench in the first half and actually outscored Green Bay in the paint, 18-14.

With 4:16 to play, UIC led 63-60 and the Flames were still in front 63-61 at the final media timeout with three minutes remaining.

Head coach Brian Wardle drew up a play for his 5-foot-11 point guard, who delivered with a monster dunk to tie the game at 63-63 with 2:38 to play. After UIC missed a pair of free throws, Sykes drained a 25-footer to give the Phoenix a 66-63 lead with 1:51 remaining.

After a UIC free throws with 1:11 on the clock closed the margin to two, the teams traded empty possessions before sophomore Carrington Love was fouled with 11 seconds on the clock. Love made the first but saw the second carom off the back iron, giving the host Flames a chance to tie the game.

Kelsey Barlow attempted to get free at the top of the key, but sophomore Jordan Fouse  stripped the ball and passed it ahead to Sykes, who used his 44.5 inch vertical to slam home two more points and seal Green Bay’s fifth consecutive road win.

The Green Bay defense held UIC without a field goal for the final eight minutes and 28 seconds of game action. The Flames finished the game at 42.9 percent from the field (21-49) while Green Bay made 23-of-47 shots for 48.9 percent.