LARAMIE, Wyo. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - Finding itself in another hole in the second half, this time on the road, Green Bay (6-7) used a perfect storm of uncanny shooting and lockdown defense to rally for a 68-62 road victory over Wyoming (6-7) Wednesday night at Arena-Auditorium.

Offensively, Green Bay knocked down all seven of its three-point attempts after halftime, but it was defensively where the Phoenix really dominated in erasing a nine-point deficit and handing the hosts just their second home loss of the season.

Wyoming held a 48-43 lead when Djibril Thiam finished a dunk in the paint with 11:46 to play. When the clock hit zero and the Phoenix had polished off its fifth comeback win of the season, the Cowboys had not hit another field goal. Missing its final nine shots from the field, the Cowboys shot just 27.3 percent in the second half.

"This is the most proud I have been of this team all year," said head coach Brian Wardle. "It was a short turnaround and a long travel day yesterday, but we got focused in. We have kind of turned into a second-half team a little bit. We were more aggressive, we got to the foul line and we got them on the glass pretty good. That is a big and strong veteran team that we went in and beat so it was a great win."

Senior Rahmon Fletcher (Kansas City, Mo.) led the charge from a nine-point deficit in the second half, scoring 16 of his team-high 21 points in the final 20 minutes. Fletcher went 4-for-4 from the three-point line in the second half after a tough start, and his three with 2:23 to play gave the Phoenix the lead for good.  

"Every shot that I took in the first half felt the same as the ones in the second half, but I was just short-arming them," said Fletcher. "Every day in practice we go through situational drills, and that is for games like this coming down into the clutch. We knew Wyoming had not been in a close home game this season, and we knew we had been in a lot of close games so we had an advantage at the end."

Fellow senior Bryquis Perine (Milwaukee, Wis.) hit the dagger for Green Bay, nailing a three late in the shot clock with 18 seconds left in the game to turn a 64-62 lead into a five-point advantage that sealed the win for his team.

Green Bay fell behind by as many as 10 (21-11) in the first half after a steal and dunk from Desmar Jackson with 5:43 to play. The Phoenix was struggling to score against the Wyoming zone due to a 1-for-11 effort from long range early and finished the half just 3-of-16 from long range.

Fletcher missed his first four three-pointers before knocking down his last five in the game. At halftime, he had just five points and was 2-for-7 from the field.

The Phoenix used back-to-back three-pointers from Fletcher and junior Steve Baker (St. Paul, Minn.) to end that slump and spark a 10-2 run that left Green Bay behind just 23-21 with four minutes before halftime. Jackson drained a three as part of his game-high 14 points, and the Cowboys went to the break with a 30-25 lead.

"There were probably three or four threes in the first half that I did not like, and we shot too many threes, but I told them at halftime that we need to drive the ball in the second half and we will get threes towards the end, and that is exactly what happened. That ball was moving in the second half and we got some good looks."

Baker added 13 points and seven rebounds while Daniel Turner (McCordsville, Ind.) grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Led by those two, Green Bay had a 20-9 edge on the glass in the second half and finished the game with a 36-24 rebounding edge.

"[Rebounding] was a total team effort, and we work on that every day in practice," said Turner. "Everyone was blocking out their man and going to pursue the ball. We have an emphasis every day that we are going to be a tough team and defend and rebound."

The Phoenix hit 13-of-19 shots in the second half, including the seven from beyond the arc, and finished the game 24-of-50 for 48 percent. Defensively, Green Bay had one of its strongest games of the season, using its stifling defense late to hold Wyoming to 16-of-42 shooting (38.1%) from the field and 3-for-14 from the three.

Green Bay returns to action after taking a break for the holidays, playing at Detroit on Dec. 30 as the Phoenix returns to its Horizon League schedule.

For more information on individual game tickets or season tickets or Pick 5 packages, please visit GreenBayPhoenix.com/tickets or call the Green Bay ticket office at 920.465.2625. 

GREEN BAY 68, WYOMING 62

GREEN BAY (6-7)
FLETCHER, Rahmon 7-12 2-4 21; BAKER, Steve 6-8 0-1 13; PERINE, Bryquis 3-7 0-0 8; EVANS, Seth 2-4 2-2 8; BROWN, Alec 2-3 2-3 6; LESAGE, Greg 2-2 0-0 4; TURNER, Daniel 2-4 0-0 4; WILLIAMS, Jarvis 0-3 4-4 4; HEUER, Clayton 0-1 0-0 0; SNYDER, Troy 0-3 0-0 0; CERRONI, Kam 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 24-50 10-14 68.

WYOMING (6-7)
JACKSON, Desmar 6-16 10-12 23; THIAM, Djibril 3-6 8-13 14; CRUZ, Francisco 1-4 7-8 10; LUSTER, JayDee 3-6 2-2 9; M'BAYE, Amath 1-5 0-0 2; GIBSON, Brian 1-2 0-0 2; BOUEDO, Arthur 1-1 0-0 2; HARRISON, Daylen 0-1 0-0 0; HUDSON, Joe 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-42 27-35 62.

Green Bay.....................   25   43  -   68
Wyoming.........................   30   32  -   62