Oakland University senior guard Travis Bader couldn’t find his rhythm as the Golden Grizzlies (7-14, 2-4 Horizon) fell to the Green Bay Phoenix (16-3, 6-0), 89-63 on Wednesday night.

Bader is now 3-of-21 from behind the arc in his past two outings. He went 2-of-11 against the Phoenix and finished the game with only eight points.

Despite slow shooting and being down seven at halftime, the Grizzlies mounted a comeback to tie the game at 49 with 11:25 remaining in the game.

Sophomore guard Mitch Baenziger hit the Grizzlies’ next shot to give them a 3-point lead, their first since the early minutes of the game at 2-1.

Oakland held onto the lead for much of the second half after that, but Phoenix guard Kelfer Sykes was the answer for Green Bay. Sykes had a game-high 27 points to go along with eight boards and six assists. 

Junior center Corey Petros was the leading scorer for the Grizzlies, tallying 19 points and nine rebounds. Freshman point guard Kahlil Felder had 14 points and eight assists, while sophomore forward Tommie McCune came off the bench to add 13 more for OU.

Oakland saw their lead slip away in the final minutes of the contest. The lead cost them a chance to hand the Horizon League’s first-place team a notch in the loss column.

With six minutes left Felder made a layup for the Grizzlies to put them up by one at 61-60, from there it was the dominant Phoenix that went on a 23-8 run to close out the game, including 12 points from Sykes.

The Grizzlies started out promising on the road trip with a win at UDM, but finishes 1-2. They return home this Saturday, Jan. 25 versus UIC who has yet to win in Horizon League play this year.