GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Green Bay (10-3, 3-0 Horizon League) stayed perfect in Horizon League play by downing Youngstown State (4-6, 0-3), 75-67, in a physical contest Saturday afternoon at the Resch Center. Rahmon Fletcher (Kansas City, Mo.) returned from a one-game absence due to injury by scoring a game-high 28 points.
Green Bay had to battle from behind for much of the contest. The Penguins scored the opening seven points of the game as the Phoenix missed its first seven shots before Bryquis Perine (Milwaukee, Wis.) knocked down a 14-foot jumper 3 ½ minutes into the contest. The Phoenix answered the YSU run with a 9-2 spurt of its own, ultimately knotting the score at 11.
Green Bay had its only lead of the first half at 27-26 after a Fletcher 3-pointer with 4:29 left before intermission, but did not score after that point. The Phoenix trailed at half for just the third time this year, by the score of 32-29 for the second straight game.
The second half was tightly contested, as neither team led by more than four points until Perine nailed a trey with just under five minutes remaining that pushed Green Bay's lead to seven (61-54).
Fletcher's 28 points, which came in 28 minutes of action, were one shy of his career high. He had eight of Green Bay's first 12 points coming out of intermission and totaled 23 in the second half.
Randy Berry totaled 14 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth career double-double, and fourth this season. Berry was forced to leave the game in the first half after suffering a cut to the back of his head that required staples after being upended by a Youngstown State defender on a rebound attempt.
Perine wound up with 15 points for the Phoenix, which shot 41.8 percent for the game. Youngstown State was just 24 for 62 from the field (.387), including 3 of 16 from 3-point range (.188).
Green Bay has won six of its last seven games and is now 9-0 when scoring at least 70 points. It is the second straight season that the Phoenix is out to a 3-0 start in conference action.
Green Bay is next in action Tuesday at 7 p.m. when Buffalo pays a visit in a nonconference matchup.
--GreenBayPhoenix.com--
