Men's Basketball Final Shot: Feb. 17 - Wins at a Premium

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Feb. 17)
Green Bay 71, Youngstown State 54
Cleveland State 88, Milwaukee 67

As time winds down on the Horizon League regular season, each game takes on added importance. On Sunday, it was Green Bay notching a key win at Youngstown State, while Cleveland State stayed in contention for a first round home game by rolling past Milwaukee.

Green Bay 71, Youngstown State 54
With the empty seats on the Green Bay bench outnumbering available bodies, the Phoenix controlled the tempo throughout, constricting possessions en route to a 71-54 win over Youngstown State at the Beeghly Center.

Green Bay (14-12, 8-5 Horizon) held Youngstown State (15-12, 7-7 Horizon) below 60 points for the second time this season, the Penguins’ only two such games in conference play. The Phoenix took sole possession of third place in the Horizon League, a half-game ahead of Wright State.

Youngstown State sits in fifth, a half-game in front of UIC.

Playing with just eight available players, it was the Phoenix that pulled away in the second half, using a 15-3 second half run to build a commanding lead.

Keifer Sykes continued to spark Green Bay, scoring 19 second-half points for the second-straight game and finishing with 24.

Youngstown State shot 19-of-57 for the game and made just 5-of-25 three pointers, missing its last 10 attempts from long range. Green Bay had seven blocked shots, with four coming from Alec Brown.

In the first half, Sykes found his way into foul trouble, but Brown and Sultan Muhammad picked up the slack. Brown scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half, and Muhammad scored six points during an 8-0 run to put Green Bay up 33-25 at the half.

Youngstown State jumped out quickly in the second half, scoring 11 of the first 13 points to turn the deficit into a 37-36 lead with 16:35 to play.

From there, however, Sykes took over, finding Brown for a dunk and knocking down a triple to start a 15-3 run. After YSU scored, Sykes scored on a three-point play and by the 9:47 mark the score was 50-39 in favor of the Phoenix.

The Penguins cut the deficit to 51-46, but Muhammad buried a three-pointer on the next possession and Green Bay used a 13-2 run to put the game away, leading by as many as 19 points. The Phoenix made 11-of-12 free throws in the final five minutes and finished the game 17-for-20.

Freshman Jordan Fouse continued his strong run of play, posting a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, adding two assists, one block and three steals in 37 minutes.

In the end, Sykes stole the show again. The sophomore made 5-of-6 shots from the field and hit 8-of-9 free throws after halftime. In the team’s two wins this weekend, Sykes scored 38 of his 47 points in the second half, making 12-of-23 shots from the field and 17-of-20 at the line.

Bobby Hain, starting in place of the injured Damian Eargle (nose) led four Penguins in double figures with 14 points. Kendrick Perry was 3-of-9 from the floor, finishing with 13 points, while Kamren Belin added 12. Blake Allen had 11.

Cleveland State 88, Milwaukee 67
Cleveland State shot 53-percent from the field, committed a season-low eight turnovers and had two 20-point scorers in the same game for the first time this season as the Vikings outscored Milwaukee by 21 points in the second half to earn an 88-67 win at the Wolstein Center.

Cleveland State (13-15, 5-9 Horizon) moved within 1.5 games of UIC for sixth place; the sixth-place finisher will host a first round game in the Horizon League Tournament.

Milwaukee (6-22, 2-12 Horizon) will open the Horizon League Tournament on the road after dropping 4.5 games behind UIC (15-11, 6-7 Horizon).

Freshman Bryn Forbes tied his career-high with 24 points, hitting 9-of-12 attempts for his fourth 20-point game of the season. Sophomore Charlie Lee added 20 points and six assists, upping his season total to 139 assists, the most in a single-season by a Vikings sophomore. Lee also had zero turnovers in 37 minutes.

A third underclassman, freshman Junior Lomomba finished with 11 points, five assists and four rebounds off the bench, while Marlin Mason chipped in nine points and eight rebounds off the bench. Devon Long scored nine points and grabbed four rebounds.

The Vikings went 12-of-25 from three-point and held held a 36-23 advantage on the boards and scored 22 second chance points, thanks to 13 offensive rebounds.

With the game tied at 37-37 at the half, the Vikings took control of the contest over the first 12 minutes of the second half, outscoring the Panthers 36-12 to take a 22-point lead with just under eight minutes to play.

CSU was effective from everywhere during the run, getting six points early in the paint from Long, then hitting five three-pointers. Lomomba and Mason also had back-to-back dunks, the later an alley-oop from Lee.

The lead would swell to as many as 27 points late in the game.

Long got the scoring started with a short jumper in the lane 30 seconds into the game, but the Panthers would storm to a 17-9 lead on back-to-back three-pointers from Austin Arians and Jordan Aaron. But the Vikings came right back, using a 14-5 run to gain a 23-22 advantage on two Forbes free throws.

The teams continued to trade baskets until Forbes sparked a 12-3 run with 10 points, including a pair of three-pointers and two strong drives to the basket for layups, the final one giving the Vikings their largest lead of the half, 37-30, with just over two minutes left in the half.

However, the Panthers scored the final seven points of the half, including an Aaron jumper from the left wing just before the final buzzer as the teams went into half tied 37-37.

Aaron led the Panthers with 18 points, while Austin Arians had 15 off the bench.