GREEN BAY, Wis. – Despite an improved second-half performance, the Drake University men's basketball team could not overcome a 17-point halftime deficit at Green Bay, falling 64-48 Saturday afternoon.

Drake (1-8) outscored the Phoenix (7-2), 28-27, in the second half and appeared to be on the cusp of erasing Green Bay's first-half advantage. However the Phoenix answered Drake's final charge with a 10-2 run to build its lead back out to 20 points, 62-42, with 3:55 left in the contest.

Chris Caird (Daventy, England) and Jacob Enevold Jensen (Lunderskov, Denmark) led Drake with nine points each as Drake shot 56.3 percent in the second half to pull within four possessions of the lead. Green Bay was paced by Naismith Award watchlist member Kiefer Sykes' 23 points with 18 of them coming in the first half. Jordan Fouse added 13 points and eight rebounds for the victorious side.

Drake, which had been handcuffed by turnovers in recent outings, seemed to have cured those ills with only six first-half turnovers. But Green Bay's second-half press forced 13 Drake errors, many of them to quell Drake runs, and scored a total of 17 points off of the Bulldogs' mistakes in the game.

“If we don't continue to play with confidence and make easy plays we'll continue to turn it over,” said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. “We said all week that penetration leads to and easy pass and we put ourselves in some positions where didn't simply catch, face and make an easy play. Those are things that we have to get through before we're ready to take the next step.”

Drake jumped out to a quick 6-4 lead through the first three minutes of the game before the Green Bay offense got into gear with a 6-0 run to take a 10-6 lead that it would not surrender for the remainder of the afternoon.

Drake pulled within four points, 19-15, with 8:56 left in the half on a pair of Kory Kuenstling (Dunkerton, Iowa) before Drake went cold from the field for nearly five minutes to allow Green Bay to reel off a 12-0 spurt and take a 31-15 lead. Gary Ricks, Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif.) drained his first three-pointer of the game to put Drake back on the board and snap the run but not before Sykes scored six of his 18 first-half points during that span as the Phoenix led for the balance of the half by 11 or more points. Ricks finished with five points as nine of the 10 Bulldogs that saw action scored.

The Bulldogs will have little time to reflect on the road loss as the team returns to the Knapp Center to face Jackson State on Monday evening. Tipoff between the Bulldogs and Tigers is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.