Phoenix Move to 9-1; Raiders Back Above .500

#HLMBB Scoreboard (Feb. 5)
Wright State 77, Youngstown State 67
Green Bay 81, UIC 70

Wright State continued to make the Nutter Center inhospitable to opposing teams, while Green Bay won for the 12th time on its home court on Wednesday night.

Wright State 77, Youngstown State 67
Down most of the first half, the Wright State men's basketball team combined for a 24-8 run to end that period and start the second half en route to a 77-67 Horizon League win over Youngstown State at WSU's Nutter Center.

Back-to-back three from Ryan Weber gave the Penguins an early 8-2 advantage and YSU maintained the lead until a Jerran Young layup and two Cole Darling free throws gave the Raiders a 17-16 edge with 10:35 remaining in the first half.

Youngstown State, though, regained the lead with a Kendrick Perry three and eventually went up 27-20 on two Weber foul shots with 7:43 left.

The margin was still six at 29-23 following a Perry jumper at the 5:58 mark, but the rest of the half would be controlled by Wright State as the Raiders started their decisive run with six straight points, the final four coming on a layup and two free throws by JT Yoho.

After YSU's Bobby Hain broke the string with a layup, a Young free throw, a Chrishawn Hopkins triple and a Darling basket gave the Raiders the lead for good at 35-31 heading into halftime.

Both teams shot the ball well in the opening 20 minutes as WSU was at 44 percent compared to 42 percent for the Penguins, but the Raiders also hit four of nine threes and were 11 of 14 at the foul line while Youngstown State was three of 11 from behind the arc and a perfect six for six at the stripe.

Following baskets from Yoho to start the second half, scores from Darling and AJ Pacher along two Darling foul shots extended the Raider lead to 47-37 with 16:04 to play.  Two more free throws from Darling and Reggie Arceneaux made it 54-40 and YSU would get no closer than eight the rest of the way.

Wright State hit 12 of 20 shots after halftime and was 16 of 21 at the line during that stretch to end up at 27 of 35 for the game.  Youngstown State, meanwhile, shot 46 percent for the game and was 17 of 18 at the line.  The Raiders also led 25-13 in points off of turnovers despite just a 14-12 differential in turnovers for the game.

Darling led WSU with 20 points, including 10 of 12 free throws, while Hopkins had 11, Young 10 and Pacher 10.  The four combined combined to give the Raiders 51 points off the bench compared to just seven for the Penguins.  Yoho also reached double figures as he finished with 11.

Weber paced Youngstown State (13-11, 4-5 Horizon) with 21 points while Perry had 16 and Hain 12 along with nine rebounds.

Wright State (14-12, 6-5 Horizon) hosts Cleveland State on Saturday at 1:00, a game that will be televised on ESPN2.

Green Bay 81, UIC 70
Green Bay staved off a strong showing from visiting UIC on Wednesday night, blocking 11 shots and pulling away for an 81-70 victory in Horizon League action at the Resch Center.

Senior Alec Brown scored 20 points and junior Keifer Sykes added 18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists to lead Green Bay (19-4, 9-1 Horizon) to its 11th-straight home victory and 14th win in the past 15 games overall.

The 11 blocked shots on Wednesday are tied for the third-most in program history and give the Phoenix 172 rejections this season, breaking the program’s single-season blocks record of 162 set a season ago. Green Bay has broken the record in four-straight seasons.

Paced by 10 first-half points from Brown, Green Bay led 35-32 at halftime but each time the hosts tried to pull away, UIC (5-19, 0-10 Horizon) answered with a big shot. At the 11:04 mark of the second half, Pat Birt tied the game at 57 with a three-pointer.

Sophomore Carrington Love drained a three-pointer to give the Phoenix the lead for good, and freshman Kenneth Lowe scored on a back-to-back putbacks to put Green Bay in front 57-50 with 9:44 to play. Off the bench, Lowe matched his career high with eight points and added five rebounds and two blocks.

Green Bay’s lead was still only five with 3:51 to play, but Sykes found Love for a layup and after a defensive stop dished to Brown, who converted a three-point play for a 10-point lead (72-62) at the 2:41 mark.

Brown made 7-of-10 shots from the field en route to his seventh 20th-point game of 2013-14 and added three blocked shots in 32 minutes. Playing 37 minutes, Sykes scored 15 of his points after halftime, grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds and fell just three assists shy of his first triple-double.

Junior Greg Mays quietly added nine points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots and sophomore Jordan Fouse totaled seven points, nine rebounds and two rejections. The Phoenix held a 41-32 advantage in rebounding.

Green Bay reached double figures in blocks for the fourth time in 2013-14. Nine of the program’s top-14 single-game block efforts have occurred this season and 13 of the top-14 have happened in the four-year career of Brown. With 287 career blocks, Brown is just 23 blocks shy of breaking the Horizon League career record of 309 set last season by Youngstown State’s Damian Eargle.