The Green Bay Phoenix men’s basketball team returned home Tuesday night on the return end of a home and home with SIUE, taking down the Cougars 82-57 in Coach Doug Gottlieb’s first home win of his career.
The Phoenix got off to a strong start as Marcus Hall scored the game’s first five points as part of a 7-1 run to open the contest and eight of the first 12 points early on in the 1st half. SIUE was able to battle back, even grabbing a brief lead midway through the first half. The lead would be short-lived, though, as Green Bay freshman Jeremiah Johnson was fouled on a three-point shot, and made all three free throws to give the Phoenix the lead back at 22-20.
Green Bay got the lead up to as much as nine when Anthony Roy scored seven straight points before Ray’Sean Taylor hit a corner 3 at the halftime buzzer to cut the score to 35-29 after the opening 20 minutes.
The Cougars pounced on the Phoenix to open the half, scoring 6 straight points in the first 89 seconds of the second half, forcing Gottlieb to use a timeout to end the run. Preston Ruedinger made a pair of free throws to end the run, and hit a 3 as the teams exchanged baskets en route to the under 16 break. Roy would then convert back to back and-ones as Green Bay extended the lead out to 11 points, the biggest lead to that point of the game. Roy, Wonders, and Hall all continued the scoring onslaught as Green Bay continued to pad the lead on the way to the 25 point win for the Phoenix.
Roy finished with a game high 34 points, one shy of his season high, which came against Western Illinois last week. Hall and Ruedinger each also finished with double digit point totals, Hall with 14 and Ruedinger with 10. Brian Taylor II led the way for the Cougars with 16 points, SIUE’s only double digit scorer.
Gottlieb spoke with us, after the game, which you can see below. Green Bay is back on the road later this week with a matchup against Evansville on Friday night, with a 7pm CT start time.
