GREEN BAY, Wis. - The Green Bay Phoenix (18-10, 10-6) buried the Cleveland State Vikings (13-14, 9-6) with a second-half explosion on Tuesday night en route to a 74-57 victory in a pivotal Horizon League men's basketball game. As a result, the Phoenix moved past the Vikings into third place in the standings, just ½ a game behind Wright State, with just 11 days remaining in league play.

Green Bay, which trailed 32-26 at halftime, opened the second stanza with a 37-9 run to storm into a 63-41 lead. The Phoenix made 14 of 20 shots and committed just one turnover over the first 13 minutes of the half.

The Vikings scored the next nine points, but the deficit was far too big to overcome as the Phoenix snapped a three-game losing streak against CSU. The 48 second-half points were the second most scored by Green Bay in any half this season.

Randy Berry (Plover, Wis.) established a career high with 19 points and picked up 11 rebounds to post his league-high ninth double-double of the season. He was 7 of 9 from the field in 37 minutes of work.

Rahmon Fletcher (Kansas City, Mo.) scored 12 of his 17 points after intermission, while Bryquis Perine (Milwaukee, Wis.) had all but one of his 14 following the break. Perine added a career-high eight rebounds and five assists.

Cleveland State trailed in the early stages, but used a 10-0 run to take a 17-12 lead at the 8:41 mark. Green Bay went scoreless for more than six minutes and made just 5 of its first 18 shots from the field.

The Vikings led by as many as nine in the opening frame, as CSU went 5 of 6 from 3-point range, while the Phoenix was just 1 for 8.

Green Bay finished the game 27 of 51 from the floor (52.9 percent), after going 18 of 27 (66.7 percent) in the second half.

Green Bay steps out of conference Saturday night when it hosts Indiana State in a BracketBusters game at 7 p.m.

--GreenBayPhoenix.com--