By: Andrew Gavin (@GBGavin)
GreenBayPhoenix.com
GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - Brian Wardle's team listened to his message on Saturday night, and the result was a dominant start and a 57-47 win over visiting Loyola (1-6, 0-2 HL) to help Green Bay (4-4, 2-0 HL) stay undefeated at both home (4-0) and in the Horizon League.
"To be 2-0 with this young group, I couldn't be happier about that," said Wardle. "We did what we needed to do to hold home court, and I liked what I saw tonight, especially in that first half. We got better tonight."
Wardle has preached defense and rebounding as the staples of his program since taking over the head job in 2010. Saturday night, the Phoenix held Loyola to just 12 points and outrebounded the Ramblers 22-9 in the opening half. Green Bay, who shot 44.8 percent (44.8) in the first 20 minutes, led 32-12 going into the locker room.
The 47 points scored by the Ramblers mark the first time Green Bay has held a Horizon League opponent under 50 points since holding Wright State and Detroit to 46 points on Dec. 4 and Dec. 6, 2008.
"Defensively, our pressure was there from the start and it set the tempo," said Wardle. "If you win the turnover war and the rebounding war, you have a chance to win and that's what we did."
Leading 6-3 four minutes in, Green Bay rattled off the next 10 points, including six in a row from sophomore Alec Brown (Winona, Minn.), to move ahead 16-3 with 10:12 to play. After a Loyola bucket, consecutive buckets from freshman Keifer Sykes (Chicago, Ill.) started a 6-0 spurt.
"I just wanted to come out aggressive," Sykes said. "That is the mindset that [Coach Wardle] wants us to have. He knows we are young so he is going to be patient with us but he wants us to stay aggressive."
Brown took only nine shots on the night, but the 7-foot-1 center finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, four blocked shots and three steals in 34 minutes. Sykes was solid in a career-high 33 minutes, tallying eight points, four rebounds and four assists.
"Alec was really aggressive and efficient tonight," Wardle said. "That was a physical weekend for him playing against some strong frontline guys both nights. I thought tonight his mentality was as good as he has been."
During the 11 minutes and 49 second stretch where the Phoenix lead went from three to 21, Loyola was held to just two field goals.
Back-to-back threes from sophomore Kam Cerroni (Sussex, Wis.) and junior Brennan Cougill (Sioux City, Iowa) ended the spurt to make it 28-7 with 4:34 to play.
Getting nine points from Cougill and six from Cerroni, the Phoenix bench contributed another 19 points Saturday night. In the starting lineup, senior Steve Baker (St. Paul, Minn.) hit 3-of-4 three-pointers while contributing nine points.
"It is really nice having another big body in there," Brown said of playing alonside Cougill. "It draws my guy over to help on him and his guy to help on me. High lows are working well for us. It is really good playing with him."
Green Bay's lead reached as many as 23 in the second half and was still 19 with 7:13 to play before Loyola had a 10-0 run to cut the margin to single digits.
Loyola made it a seven-point lead with 1:15 to play before Cerroni hit a leaner in the lane with just one second on the shot clock. Brown made 4-of-5 free throws down the stretch for the Phoenix as it closed out the victory.
Green Bay returns to non-conference play and the road this week to face two highly-ranked in-state opponents. The Phoenix faces No. 9/7 Wisconsin in Madison on Wednesday and travels to Milwaukee to play at No. 16/16 Marquette on Saturday. Marquette defeated Wisconsin 61-54 in Madison on Saturday.
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