Alfonzo McKinnie leads Green Bay past Valpo

Green Bay, Wis–  The Green Bay Phoenix men’s basketball team (16-4, 5-1) hosted the Valparaiso Crusaders (18-3, 5-1) at the Resch Center on Friday night in front of a crowd of 4,916 in a battle of two first place teams in the Horizon League. Heading into Friday night’s affair Green Bay lead the all-time series with Valparaiso 27-20 and the Phoenix were looking to begin the season 10-0 in front of their home fans.

The game was an 8:05 start rather than the usual 7:05 start as well as nationally televised on ESPNU, so you better believe this one was special to the guys on both sides.

Green Bay got off to a slow start to begin the game, but things definitely picked up as the half went on. Wooden and Naismith Award Watch List point guard Keifer Sykes had all spectator eyes on him as usual, and he looked a bit off early in the first half. Sykes was 0-for-5 shooting and hit two free throws to end his first half with just two points and three assists as well as a steal and a rebound, definitely not typical Sykes. Fellow senior Alfonzo McKinnie carried the load with nine points and four boards to trim the lead to two at halftime, while Green Bay trailed Valparaiso 34 to 32 while both teams shot above 45 percent in the half.

The second half was a much different story. Both teams simply could not hit a basket for most of the half. Valparaiso shot a horrendous 18.5 percent from the field, Green Bay wasn’t a ton better at 34.6 percent. I definitely got a feeling that this one was coming down to the very end as both teams continued to trade shot for shot and the second half saw seven lead changes. Keifer Sykes made a few shots when needed, as a National Player Of The Year candidate tends to do and both fellow seniors Alfonzo McKinnie and Greg Mays simply played great basketball down the stretch to give the Phoenix the 51 to 50 win as Valparaiso’s Victor Nickerson missed missed an inside jumper at the buzzer and Green Bay improved to 17-4 (6-1 HL).

Team Leaders:
Green Bay:
*Points: Keifer Sykes and Alfonzo McKinnie with 11
*Rebounds: Alfonzo McKinnie with 8
*Assists: Keifer Sykes with 6
Valparaiso:
*Points: Victor Nickerson with 10
*Rebounds: Tevonn Walker with 13
*Assists: Alec Peters with 2

-Arrick Upton
Follow Arrick on Twitter @ArrickUpton