By: Andrew Gavin (@GBGavin)

GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – Green Bay (19-5, 8-2) jumped out to a huge lead on Thursday night, built its advantage to as much as 31 points and posted an 81-70 lead over visiting Milwaukee (9-15, 4-6 HL) in Horizon League action at the Resch Center. The Phoenix sit in a three-way tie for first place with Cleveland State and Valparaiso.

Senior Alfonzo McKinnie (Chicago, Ill.) scored a career-high 23 points to steal the spotlight from his high school and college teammate Keifer Sykes (Chicago, Ill.), who passed both Jeff Nordgaard and Dennis Woelffer into second place on the program's all-time scoring list. Recording his 100th career game in double figures, Sykes moved his point total to 1,922 points with 12 points on Thursday night while adding six rebounds and four assists.  

Meanwhile, McKinnie had his best game in a Phoenix uniform. The senior transfer made 9-of-13 shots from the field and added 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. McKinnie had 13 points at halftime and added 10 more in the second half.

McKinnie scored the opening basket of the game as Green Bay scored the first six points, and scored the last seven points of a 21-2 run that made it 29-6 at the 7:26 mark. The Phoenix led by as many as 25 points in the half thanks to 52.9 percent shooting from the field and holding Milwaukee to just 7-of-28.

The lead reached as many as 31 points in the second half before foul trouble and hot shooting from Milwaukee closed the gap late.

Junior Carrington Love (Milwaukee, Wis.) scored nine early points and added 10 in the second half to post a 19-point output while adding five assists and four rebounds.

Green Bay returns to action next week for a two-game road trip, playing at Youngstown State (Wednesday, 6:45 p.m.) and Valparaiso (Friday, 6 p.m.).

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