By: Joey Daniels (@GBPhoenixMBB)
GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – With the nonconference portion of the schedule now in the rearview mirror, the Green Bay men's basketball team will turn its attention to Horizon League play on Saturday (Jan. 2) and Monday (Jan. 4). The Phoenix will play its first two league games at the Resch Center, hosting Northern Kentucky and Wright State.
TIP-OFF vs Northern Kentucky: Saturday, Jan. 2, 1 p.m. CT
TIP-OFF vs Wright State: Monday, Jan. 4, 7 p.m. CT
LOCATION: Resch Center
PROMOTION:
vs. NKU (Jan. 2) – Festival Food Family Game and Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board Trading Card Giveaway (first 1,000 fans).
vs. Wright State (Jan. 4) – S&L Motors Family Car Stickers Giveaway (first 1,000 fans)
TICKETS: Buy Here
SERIES RECORD:
vs Northern Kentucky: It will be the first meeting all-time between the two schools, the first of many to come with NKU now a member of the Horizon League.
vs Wright State: The Phoenix leads the all-time series 28-24 and has won four-straight overall in the series. Green Bay is 18-6 all-time versus the Raiders in games played in Green Bay.
WATCH/LISTEN: Both games will be streamed live on ESPN3 (vs Wright State / vs Northern Kentucky) and can be heard on WNFL. Fans can also follow live stats.
UP NEXT: Green Bay will begin a five-game road trip, starting with a trip to Ohio. The Phoenix will visit Cleveland State (Jan. 7) and Youngstown State (Jan. 9) in continuing the challenging league schedule.
NOTES
ALL IN
In just the first 10 games of 2015-16, every player on Linc Darner's roster has posted a new career high in scoring: Carrington Love (32), Charles Cooper (19) and Kerem Kanter (12) at Stanford, Kenneth Lowe (23) at ETSU, Anthony (8) and Avery Brown (9) at Georgia Tech, Jordan Fouse (22) at SIUE, Turner Botz (12) and Jamar Hurdle (12) vs. Pacific and Tevin Findlay (19), Khalil Small (16) and Henry Uwadiae (8) vs. UW-Superior. The Phoenix has 10 players averaging better than 12.0 minutes per game thus far.
GETTING DEFENSIVE
Green Bay's new system has also yielded positive results on the defensive end of the floor. Through its first 12 games, the Phoenix has forced opponents into double-digit turnovers in every game, while forcing 18.9 turnovers per game during its early success. The RP40 style has forced 20 or more turnovers in 6 of those 12 games this year as well.
STEALING THE SHOW
Green Bay has generated 11.2 steals per contest this season, which ranks 2nd in the nation behind West Virginia (12.0) as of 12/30, while seniors Carrington Love (8th) and Jordan Fouse (13th) both rank individually in the top 20 nationally with 2.67 and 2.50 steals per game respectively. As of that same date, the Phoenix leads the nation in steals per turnover ratio at 0.91.
TEAMING UP
Green Bay has had nine or more players score in all 12 of its games to begin the 2015-16 season. Additionally, the Phoenix has had five players eclipse double-figures three times already this season, something last year's 24-9 team accomplished only once.
OPENING LEAGUE PLAY
Over the past 10 seasons, Green Bay has gone 6-4 in its Horizon League opener, including league-opening wins in the last two seasons. Additionally, the Phoenix has finished above .500 in league play in six of the last seven seasons, including double-digit conference wins in all six of those seasons. Green Bay has finished second and first in the league respectively over the last two seasons and has had just one losing record in Horizon League play since 2006-07.
JUMPING THE HURDLE
JUCO-transfer Jamar Hurdle has come on strong in his last four league games, averaging 10.0 PPG over that span which has helped the Phoenix go 3-1 in those games. Hurdle scored a career-high 19 points in Green Bay's win at Morehead State on Monday night, going a smoking hot 8-for-9 from the floor. Hurdle scored just 22 points total in his first seven games, but has scored 40 points over his last four. The native of Milwaukee also played a career-high 23 minutes at Morehead State, while going 3-for-3 at the charity stripe.
LEADING LOVE
Senior point guard Carrington Love continued his impressive season with another double-figure scoring game at Morehead State, finishing with 18 points, a few days after scoring 28 points at Wisconsin on 11 made field goals. Love is currently second in the league in scoring at 19.5 PPG and has scored in double-figures in 10 of 12 games played this season. The Milwaukee-native has scored 20 or more points in six games this year, and has converted 32 of his team's 74 three-point field goal makes.
###
For the latest and most up-to-date information on Green Bay Athletics, please visit GreenBayPhoenix.com.
Follow us on Twitter: @GBPhoenix and @GBPhoenixMBB.
Like Green Bay Phoenix men's basketball and Green Bay Phoenix Athletics on Facebook.
---GreenBayPhoenix.com---
