For the Florida Gulf Coast men\u2019s basketball team, it was a case of too much of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay being the aggressor and too much of the Phoenix\u2019s standout guard Keifer Sykes, in Green Bay\u2019s 59-45 victory over FGCU in the championship game of the Gulf Coast Showcase Wednesday night at Germain Arena in front of 3,857. For Eagles\u2019 coach Joe Dooley, it was just too much.<\/p>\n \u201cGreen Bay dominated the game from the beginning to the end,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were the aggressors.\u00a0\u00a0There was a lack (of FGCU) of going after loose balls. I’m disappointed.\u00a0Our offense was inept, though they played good defense. We have things to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of the Eagles\u2019 (5-1) problems occurred when Sykes was on the floor. After Green Bay out to a 15-0 lead at the start of the game, FGCU was able to go on a 7-0 run of their own, with most of it occurring while Sykes was on the bench after getting a foul. After Sykes came back in, the teams primarily swapped baskets until FGCU went on a 9-2 run near the end of the half to cut the lead to only 25-20. Again, that was done primarily with Sykes on the bench, after he got his second foul. A Green Bay free throw made the score 26-20 at the half.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had some shots (at the beginning of the second half),\u201d Dooley said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t go in.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sykes, a 6\u20190\u201d senior guard out of Chicago, knew what his presence on the court meant to the Phoenix (4-1).<\/p>\n \u201cIt (His third foul) was frustrating,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was tough to get it with 17 minutes left in the game. My teammates had my back though. They told me not to lose my aggressiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n He also mentioned that they changed their defensive assignments to guard against him getting another quick foul. For the game, he finished with 19 points and five assists in 29 minutes of play. He was named the MVP of tournament.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe is very explosive,\u201d Dooley said. \u201cHe has a bright future and can play for money.\u201d<\/p>\n Joining Sykes on the All-Tournament Team was his teammate Greg Mays who had 15 points and ten rebounds on the night. Green Bay also received solid contributions from Jordan Fouse (seven points) and Carrington Love (eight points).<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a great accomplishment,\u201d Green Bay coach Brian Wardle said. \u201cI am very proud. We had some great practices leading up to this. It was a very good basketball game. They are a good team. We did a great job defensively.\u00a0 We played like we are a on a mission. It is good to get a feel of what winning a championship is like.\u201d<\/p>\n Though FGCU also placed two players on the All-Tournament Team in seniors Brett Comer and Bernard Thompson, who finished the game with ten and 14 points respectively, no one from the Eagles side was in much of a celebratory mood.\u00a0\u00a0 FGCU hasn\u2019t scored as few points as they did in this game since 2009, when they also scored 45 against Campbell.<\/p>\n \u201c(On offense) we are not making good decisions. On defense we can\u2019t get stops,\u201d Comer said.<\/p>\n By BILL LEVY \u00a0 Click here to see other photos of the game\u00a0 For the Florida Gulf Coast men\u2019s basketball team, it was a case of too much of the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG_3712-200x300.jpg\" "\\"IMG_3712\\"")
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\nWhen Sykes got his third foul of the game at the start of the second half, it appeared that that the Eagles would be able to go on another run, but that was not the case, as the Phoenix promptly went on a 8-2 run of their own, with Sykes still in the game, to go up 34-22 and take full control of the game.<\/p>\n
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