GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - Brian Wardle watched Green Bay (1-0) score the first 11 points of the game Saturday afternoon against Minnesota Duluth (0-1), and his Phoenix team rolled from there to a 75-36 victory over the visiting Bulldogs in Wardle's head coaching debut at the Kress Events Center.

The first-year head coach of the Phoenix had stressed defense since he took over the reins of the program last spring, and his players certainly responded to the challenge to turn in one of the best defensive efforts in the program's history.

Minnesota Duluth did not score for the first five-plus minutes of the contest, leading 11-0 when the Bulldogs finally got on the board at the 14:48 mark. UMD hit just 5-of-26 shots in the first half, and for the game shot just 23.7 percent (14-59). The Phoenix forced 21 turnovers and 7-foot-1 freshman Alec Brown (Winona, Minn.) registered six of the team's eight blocks.

When it was all said and done, Green Bay had held the Bulldogs to just 36 points, tied for the third-fewest points by a Phoenix opponent in the shot clock era (since 1985-86) and the fewest since Green Bay gave up just 36 against East Carolina on Dec. 8, 1998.

"One thing we wanted to do was stay a little more disciplined on defense," said Wardle. "We pressured them and tried to make every pass one that they thought about. I think our energy level was great to start the first half, it was very average to start the second half, but then they picked it back up. Rahmon [Fletcher] really set the tone tonight, Seth Evans gave us great minutes defensively, and then Alec Brown on the weakside got a lot of blocks."

Senior Rahmon Fletcher (Kansas City, Mo.) had 12 points of his game-high 16 points in the opening half to help the Phoenix to a 40-17 lead at the break. His defense on Ryan Rasmussen, UMD's leading scorer from a season ago, was also a major reason for the big Phoenix lead. Rasmussen had just two points at the break, attempting just one shot and committing four turnovers.

"[Rahmon] has come a long way [defensively], and he took it as a challenge," Wardle said about guarding Rasmussen. "He is a gnat, and he is so quick that once you catch it he is hard to get by off the dribble. I thought he did a great job early making Rasmussen work to get the ball, and then Seth Evans did the same thing when he came in."

After the visitors scored the first four points of the second, Green Bay went on a 20-7 run to increase its lead to 32 and never looked back on its way to the 39-point win.

Senior Bryquis Perine (Milwaukee, Wis.) added 11 points and four assists for the Phoenix while junior newcomer Jarvis Williams (Milwaukee, Wis.) had 10 points in his first official game at Green Bay. In his first college game, Brown had seven points, six rebounds and six blocks in just 18 minutes of action.

Despite the dominant first-half performance, Green Bay was even in the rebounding column, something Wardle stressed to his team to improve after the break. The Phoenix responded to outrebound UMD 31-19 in the second half.

Sophomore Troy Snyder (Bolingbrook, Ill.) led that charge with six points and seven rebounds in the second half alone. Snyder had a game-high eight rebounds while senior Greg LeSage (Radcliff, Ky.) also had a career-high with seven. Williams, Brown, Perine and junior Steve Baker (St. Paul, Minn.) each added six boards.

"I was disappointed at halftime because I thought we could have rebounded the ball a lot better in the first half, especially offensively. It was a big thing at halftime that I stressed and I challenged them to win the rebounding war. The second half we went to the boards with a purpose. For the most part, the effort flying to the glass was there."

After helping him get his coaching career off to a winning start, Fletcher and his teammates gave Wardle the game ball and congratulated him on win number one. While he was all business during the game, the first-year coach acknowledged he was proud his team's effort and that he would remember his first win forever.

"I told the players, 'you have a first of a lot of things in your life, and I'll always remember this game and that I appreciated their effort on the floor,'" Wardle said. "It was a fun game and I think our guys had a blast playing out there together at the Kress in front of the fans."

GREEN BAY 75, MINNESOTA DULUTH 36

MINNESOTA DULUTH (0-1)
Jake Hottenstine 4-15 1-1 9; Brett Ervin 3-11 1-6 7; Ryan Rasmussen 2-5 2-2 6; Riley Walker 2-5 0-0 4; Peter Crawford 1-5 2-2 4; Phil Homere 1-5 0-0 2; Sean Mayberry 0-2 2-2 2; Dylan Rodriguez 1-8 0-0 2; Erik Powers 0-0 0-0 0; Rhett McDonald 0-0 0-0 0; Joe Paschka 0-1 0-0 0; Dan Kornbaum 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 14-59 8-13 36.

GREEN BAY (1-0)
FLETCHER, Rahmon 6-9 3-4 16; PERINE, Bryquis 5-12 1-2 11; WILLIAMS, Jarvis 5-8 0-5 10; EVANS, Seth 3-5 1-2 9; BROWN, Alec 3-8 1-2 7; SNYDER, Troy 3-7 0-2 6; SEMENAS, Derek 2-4 2-5 6; HEUER, Clayton 2-4 0-0 5; BAKER, Steve 2-6 0-1 4; LESAGE, Greg 0-0 1-2 1; VALENTIN, Eric 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-64 9-25 75.

Minnesota Duluth...............   17   19  -   36
Green Bay.........................   40   35  -   75