The 14th seeded Green Bay Phoenix lost in the NCAA opener in Oklahoma City against Texas A&M Friday night. They were outscored 92-65 by the third-seeded Aggies.
The Phoenix were looking good about 5 minutes into the game, hitting Texas A&M with a 12-0 run without some of their key players who were sitting on the bench in foul trouble.
“We got in some foul trouble, really for the first time all year,” Turner Botz said. “We had 3 of our starters on the bench that couldn’t play a lot in the first half . Just all that stuff bunched together and ended up just hurting us in the end.”
The entire night had to be done without the customary contributions of key players. Jordan Fouse, Carrington Love, and Charles Cooper, the three leading scorers on this team, combined for about a third of their normal scoring average.
Carrington Love said, “I’m used to shooting over 6-3, 6-4 at best. They had guys on me at times that were 6-5, 6-7. I usually get my shot off but it was a little tougher so I had to adjust. But at the same time, I didn’t want to force anything. My sophomore guard, Khalil Small was doing really well. I just wanted to keep feeding him the ball and see what he could do with it.”
Green Bay’s season ends with a 23-13 record, but they made it to the NCAA Tournament, for the first time in 20 years, which could mean high expectations going into next season.
“Tonight definitely wasn’t our best night, but like I told them in the huddle, we can’t let this loss define our season,” Jordan Fouse said. “We did something that hasn’t happened in 20 years and we’ve got to embrace that. We did something that did a long time to do, and we have a great group of guys who helped me get here. And next year they should be fighting to get back in this position.
