By: Andrew Gavin (@GBGavin)
GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – Winners of three-straight games and seven of its past eight contests, Green Bay (8-2) takes to the road to compete in the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic. The Phoenix will open the tournament on Sunday at 1 p.m. CST against UALR (4-4). In the tournament's second game, Bradley will face UC-Irvine.
It will be the second neutral-site tournament of the season for head coach Brian Wardle's squad, which won the title at the Gulf Coast Showcase back in November.
The defense has been the catalyst during Green Bay's winning streak, which includes wins over No. 15/15 Miami (68-55), Drake (64-48) and Morehead State (66-50). The three opponents have averaged 51 points on 35.1 percent shooting against the Phoenix defense.
The starting backcourt of senior Keifer Sykes (Chicago, Ill.) and junior Carrington Love (Milwaukee, Wis.) has spearheaded the offense during the streak, combining to average 34 points (Sykes-19.3, Love-14.7). Sykes, the Preseason Horizon League Player of the Year, is averaging 18.5 points per game and shooting 85.7 percent from the free-throw line. In Wednesday's 66-50 win over Morehead State, Sykes scored 17 points and made all eight of his free throws.
Green Bay's defense has kept the Phoenix from playing in many close contests. Only one of the team's games has been decided by 10 points or less, a 64-62 win over Evansville. In each of Green Bay's other seven wins, the opponent has failed to reach 60 points.
GREEN BAY PROBABLE STARTERS
G – #24 Keifer Sykes, G, Sr., 6-0, 180
G – #12 Carrington Love, G, Jr., 6-1, 171
F – #4 Jordan Fouse, F, Jr., 6-7, 225
F – #15 Greg Mays, F, Sr., 6-9, 222
C – #45 Kenneth Lowe, F, So., 6-8, 230
LIVE COVERAGE: Sunday's game will be available to watch for free via the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic website. Fans can also tune into WNFL 1440 AM and 92.1 FM, where Matt Menzl (play-by-play) and Andrew Gavin (analyst) will bring fans a radio broadcast of the game.
AGAINST THE FIELD: Sunday's contest will be the first meeting between Green Bay and UALR. The Phoenix has dropped both previous meetings with Bradley, and earned a victory in the only previous game against UC-Irvine.
MOVIN' ON UP: Sykes continues his climb up the program's scoring chart. The senior guard has scored 1,667 career points, tied with Mike Schactner (1667, 2005-09) for seventh place all-time. With 12 more points, the Chicago native will leap over both Rahmon Fletcher (2007-11, 1678) and former teammate Alec Brown (2010-14, 1678) into fifth place.
NEUTRAL NEWS: Including winning three games in three days to win this season's Gulf Coast Showcase, Green Bay has won four-straight neutral site games and five of its past six dating back to 2013-14. In November 2012, the Phoenix went 1-2 in a tournament in Reno.
EARLY EXCELLENCE: Green Bay's 8-2 record is the best start for the program since 2009-10. With wins in five of its first six games, the Phoenix also posted the best record through six games since 1990-91. The success comes despite Green Bay playing one of the toughest schedules in the country and helped the team obtain the top spot in the RPI through Dec. 14.
JUMPSTARTED: The team's great start to the season is due in large part to great starts to games. Green Bay has led at least 6-0 five times, and on three different occasions has held the opponent off the scoreboard for at least six minutes (East Carolina - 7-0, 12:12; Florida Gulf Coast - 15-0, 12:28; Morehead State - 12-0, 13:34). In the first halves of the team's wins, Green Bay is allowing just 23.8 points on 31.1 percent shooting.
DOUBLE-DIGIT DEJA VU: Dating back to last season, Sykes has scored in double figures in 29-straight games and 50 of his past 51 contests. Since the beginning of his sophomore season, the Chicago native has reached double figures in 70 of 74 games. Sykes scored 10 or more just twice in his first 13 career games but has reached the mark 85 times in 91 games since turning 18 on Dec. 30, 2012.
2K24: Averaging 18.5 points per game, Sykes has already scored 185 points in nine games this season. The senior needs 250 points to move into second place on the scoring ledger. With 333 more points, Sykes will join all-time leading scorer Tony Bennett (2,285) as the only Phoenix players to score at least 2,000 career points. The senior point guard is also currently sixth on the program's career assist chart and tenth in steals.
AMONG THE NATION'S BEST: As the nation's only active player with 1,500 career points and 350 career assists, Sykes has been recognized this season with numerous national accolades. In addition to earning a spot on the Naismith Award Watch List and the John R. Wooden Award Watch List as one of the top-50 players, the Chicago native is on the Bob Cousy Award Watch List as one of the nation's top point guards.
WHAT'S YOURS IS OURS: In its three-game winning streak, Green Bay has tallied 11 steals per game. Against Drake on Dec. 13, the Phoenix collected 14 steals, tied for the fifth most in a single game in program history. Sykes and Love have eight steals each in the stretch.
PHO SLAMMA JAMMA: Last season, Green Bay tallied 97 dunks in 31 games, an average of 3.1 per contest. In 2014-15, the Phoenix has 35 dunks in 10 games (3.5), with senior Greg Mays (Chicago, Ill.) tallying 14 and Sykes flushing eight dunks. Mays has 86 career dunks and the 6-foot Sykes has 45. The high-flying Phoenix was dubbed Pho Slamma Jamma by the Anchorage Daily News during the 2013 Great Alaska Shootout.
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