The heartbreak of the 2024-25 men’s basketball season continues, as the Green Bay Phoenix dropped its 21st straight game on Friday night. Northern Kentucky traveled to Green Bay, braving Winter Storm Cooper for a Valentine’s night showdown, and took down the Phoenix 73-60 at the Kress Center.
Northern Kentucky grabbed the early lead on the opening possession of the game, as Sam Vinson hit a jumper. Trey Robinson extended the Norse lead with a jump shot of his own. Green Bay finally got on the board, and was able to grab a brief lead after a pair of Marcus Hall threes. The three point barrage continued as Jeremiah Johnson and Foster Wonders hit deep balls for Green Bay, with Josh Dilling making one for NKU.
Hall extended the Phoenix lead to 14-9 with a layup, the largest lead Green Bay would hold in the contest. Northern Kentucky stormed back, getting a layup from Dan Gherezgher and another Dilling three to tie the game. Dilling was fouled on the shot and able to complete the 4 point play, giving the Norse lead back for good. Randall Pettus splashed a triple to continue the Norse run, before both teams went through a scoring drought over the next couple minutes.
C.J. O’Hara broke the run by making a pair of free throws, only to be immediately answered by another score from Robinson. Roee Oselka hit a jumper, cutting the Norse lead to 21-18, when Dilling hit another with Keeyan Itejere and Robinson scoring as well, a mini Norse run to extend the lead out to double digits.
Wonders and Johnson did score to cut the lead in half before Robinson and Dilling resumed the heavy lifting of the NKU scoring. The Norse lead would hover around 10 points, as Green Bay was unable to sustain any long run. Marcus Hall hit a trey to cut the lead 35-28, just for Northern Kentucky to get buckets from LJ Wells and back to back layups from Robinson. Preston Ruedinger would hit a triple in the closing seconds of the first half, but the big Norse lead remained at 42-31 after 20 minutes of play.
Mac Wrecke and Wonders kept the Phoenix run going as Green Bay came out of the locker room and cut the lead back to single digits. Itejere would exchange scoring with Green Bay’s Wonders and Johnson matched his efforts. NKU extended its lead thanks to layups from Wells and Delling. The Phoenix had one more rally in them, sparked scores from Hall and Ruedinger. The Kress Center crowd anxiously waited for a big moment, with lead down to just two scores, which unfortunately never came.
Missed threes from Johnson and Ruedinger kept the crowd at bay until Dilling made a three-pointer of his own. Ben Tweedy answered with a jumper, just to be immediately responded by Dilling scoring again. Green Bay would get as close as 7 in the remainder of the game, just for Northern Kentucky to push the advantage back out, holding into the lead and seal the victory.
Oshkosh, WI native Josh Dilling led all scorers with 25 for the victorious Norse, with Robinson adding in 20.
For the Phoenix, Marcus Hall led the way with 19 points. Wonders chipped in 11 to round out double digit scoring efforts for either team. Green Bay was without Yonatan Levy, who missed the game due to concussion protocols. Anthony Roy remains out as well, but is out of the walking boot that he had been wearing since the injury back in December.
The Phoenix remain at home for the weekend, squaring off against Wright State on Sunday from the Kress Center. Tipoff is slated for 2pm CT.
