Green Bay holds on to beat Marquette, 49-47

GREEN BAY (AP) - Keifer Sykes scored 20 points as Green Bay beat Marquette 49-47 Wednesday night in a nonconference game.

Greg Mays added 11 points and five rebounds for the Phoenix (4-7), who gave coach Brian Wardle his first victory against his alma mater.

The Phoenix, who entered the game having lost four in a row and seven of the last eight, beat the Golden Eagles for only the third time in 12 meetings. Marquette's four-game winning streak came to an end.

Jamil Wilson had 16 points for Marquette (7-3), but was held to two points in the second half. Junior Cadougan added eight points.

Wardle played for Marquette from 1997-2001 and was 0-2 coaching against his former school.

With Green Bay leading 48-47, Marquette's Vander Blue missed the front end of a one-and-one with 35.1 seconds remaining, but the Golden Eagles pulled down the rebound. After two timeouts, Marquette got Thomas an open 3-point look with 3 seconds on the clock, but it was missed. Green Bay's Alec Brown got the rebound and hit one free throw. A desperation heave at the buzzer by Marquette was no good.

Green Bay starting forward Brennan Cougill missed his second straight game after violating team rules. Despite Cougill's absence the Phoenix outscored the Golden Eagles 22-20 in the paint.

Marquette led 10-6 early before Green Bay went on a 17-4 run, capped by back-to-back layups by Sykes, to go up 23-14. The Golden Eagles outscored the Phoenix 17-6 the rest of the half for a 31-29 lead.

Both teams shot well from the field in the opening half, Green Bay hitting 50 percent of its shots and Marquette making 48 percent.

Wilson scored 14 points in first half. Sykes had 11 first-half points for Green Bay.

Marquette went up 37-36 on Jake Thomas' 3-pointer. Green Bay ended a scoring drought of more than 6 minutes with Greg Mays'+ basket midway through the half to pull the Phoenix within 39-38.

Sykes hit a free throw and Alec Brown hit a jump shot to put Green Bay up 47-44 with 2:39 remaining. After Cadougan missed the front end of a one-and-one, Mays made a free throw to put the Phoenix up by four. On Marquette's next possession, Davante Gardner converted a shot in the lane and was fouled. He made the free throw to pull the Golden Eagles to within 48-47 with 1:25 left.

Brown lit up Marquette last season with a 21-point, 14-rebound, five-block performance, scored only nine points and seven rebounds Wednesday.