The struggles of the 2024-25 Green Bay Phoenix men’s basketball team continued Friday night. A roster that was depleted with injuries and foul trouble failed to hold a 17-point lead, and fell victim to another scoreless stretch in the second half that ultimately proved too much to overcome as Green Bay fell to Robert Morris 89-67.
The Phoenix got out to a marvelous start in the 1st half, with excellent ball movement and limiting the Colonials on the offensive glass. Marcus Hall and Mac Wrecke were scoring early and often, as Green Bay built a 13-4 lead into the under 16 break in the 1st half. Robert Morris drew closer, doing so from the foul line as the Colonials drew multiple early fouls on Hall and Jeremiah Johnson, cutting the score to 13-10 before Hall sparked a long Green Bay rally with a made 3.
The Phoenix scored 14 straight points, including a barrage of threes by Hall, building Green Bay’s lead to 27-10 before the Colonials would make a charge back. Johnson and Wrecke both went to the bench with 3 first half fouls before the under 8 media timeout, as Robert Morris slowly but surely cut into the Phoenix lead. The Colonials cut the lead to as few as 7 before Green Bay would get it back up to 12, before Amarion Dickerson splashed a 3, and Andy Toole called a timeout with 3:39 left in the opening half to prompt the under four minute break.
The Phoenix came out of the break to extend the lead back to 11 before Robert Morris had one more run in the half, cutting the lead to just 3 as both teams exchanged baskets in the final minute. DJ Smith buried a 3 with 0:10 left in the first half, before Ben Tweedy tried to fire a last second shot at the buzzer from near midcourt where he was fouled. Replay confirmed he got the shot attempt off with 00.8 seconds left and he went to the line to shoot 3 free throws. He made 2-3, and gave the Phoenix a 45-40 halftime lead.
Foul trouble was a problem for 2 of Green Bay’s playmaking guards, as Jeremiah Johnson had picked up his 4th foul in the final minute of the 1st half, and Wrecke would pick up his 4th in the first 30 seconds of the 2nd half.
Without these two on the floor for an extended period, Green Bay’s offense seemingly lost all momentum. As for the Colonials, they came out of the locker room red hot. Robert Morris opened the half on a 28-0 run to not only grab the lead but crush the entire spirit of the Phoenix phaithful in the Resch Center.
When Green Bay finally got on the board with 9:27 left in the game, courtesy of a Hall layup that was ruled goaltending on RMU, you would have thought the Phoenix grabbed a lead as the crowd of about 2,000 erupted in a Bronx cheer. The two teams would trade baskets evenly from there out, as Robert Morris simply had to match Green Bay’s scoring and run out the clock.
Gottlieb did turn to Wrecke and Johnson during the middle of the run, as Wrecke would foul out near with 10:31 left in regulation. Jeremiah Johnson, on the other hand, proved to play some big minutes in that stretch and did provide a spark on the offensive side of the floor, adding to his point total on a couple And 1’s to attempt a comeback for the Phoenix, before he would ultimately foul out in the waning moments of the game.
Marcus Hall led Green Bay’s scoring efforts with 17, Jeremiah Johnson, limited to 24 minutes due to his foul situation, still managed to add 13. Ben Tweedy was able to lead bench scoring with 8 of Green Bay’s 15 bench points.
For Robert Morris, Amarion Dickerson scored a game high 22, and Kam Woods dropped 20 points as well. Alvaro Folgueiras added 13 and Ryan Prather Jr. chipped in 11 to round out double figure scoring totals.
Newcomer Yonatan Levy was held out of action with a lower body injury and is considered day to day. Anthony Roy remains out with a lower body injury that has kept him out of action since he had to leave the December 14th contest against Santa Barbara.
The Green Bay men are back in action Sunday, hosting the Youngstown State Penguins at the Resch Center. The Penguins will be looking to end a two-game skid when they come to town, after losing to Milwaukee on Friday evening. Tipoff is set for 12PM CT.
