One week after the Phoenix were able to knock off Wright State to get its first conference win, Green Bay was on the road hunting for another upset. Unfortunately it was not to be as Youngstown State outlasted Green Bay for an 81-77 win.
Fresh off a career high 29 points in Friday’s loss, Marcus Hall started the scoring for Green Bay with a three ball, cutting into the Penguins early 4-0 lead. Youngstown State maintained the lead through the early parts of the half, holding a 4 point lead through much of the early going. Green Bay surged to tie and take the lead, as Ben Tweedy, Preston Ruedinger, Yonatan Levy, and Mac Wrecke all scored to put the Phoenix up 18-13.
The Penguins got a triple from Jason Nelson to break the Green Bay run, only for Levy and Ruedinger to build the lead back up. Youngstown State managed a response, going on a 12-2 run to grab the lead, with David Wilkerson hitting the triple to put the Penguins back in front. Green Bay managed to grab the lead back briefly, but it would be Youngstown State who went into halftime with the advantage, holding a 33-32 lead.
Ty Harper and Juwan Maxey sandwiched a Jeremiah Johnson dunk to continue building the lead for YSU. Hall hit another three, followed by a Levy bucket to put Green Bay back in front. Both teams exchanged the lead back and forth through much of the half, with Ryan Wade and Mac Wrecke catching fire from deep in the half.
Youngstown State would get key buckets from Nico Galette and Gabe Dynes down the stretch as well. The Penguins grabbed the lead for good just prior the under 4 break, a tip in by Galette. They wouldn’t be able to break the game open, as the Phoenix kept things tight, but just unable to get ahead. At the final media break in the game, YSU led 72-69. As the game closed out, the ‘Guins made free throws and Green Bay ran out of time.
Four Phoenix players scored in double figures, as the team was led by Marcus Hall’s 16 points. Wrecke came off the bench to score 15, with Tweedy and Johnson rounding out the double figures scoring efforts, with 13 and 10 points, respectively. Galette led all scorers with 21 points for Youngstown State with Dynes adding 19.
Green Bay returns home to close out the regular season, with the Detroit Metro area teams coming to Wisconsin. First up, will be Detroit Mercy on Thursday, February 27th. Tipoff is set for 6pm CT.
