GREEN BAY, Wis. – In their third Horizon League game of the season and going on the road for the ninth time in the last ten contests, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies will battle the Green Bay Phoenix at the Kress Events Center on Thursday, December 29 at 8 p.m.

Last playing on December 21 at Savage Arena against the Toledo Rockets, the Golden Grizzlies will bring a 6-5 (1-1 Horizon League) record into play Thursday, while the Phoenix are 8-3 and also 1-1 in conference action.

This will be the first of two consecutive games for Oakland in the Badger State, as they will also face the Milwaukee Panthers on Saturday, December 31 at 3 p.m.

OAKLAND RUNDOWN
Five Golden Grizzlies are scoring at least eight points per night, with junior forward Alexis Johnson leading the way at an even 11 per game and classmate Linda van Schaik giving Oakland 10.1 on just under 30 percent 3-point shooting.

Preseason All-Horizon League Second Teamer and senior Breanne Beatty has continued to be her do-everything self, averaging 9.2 points and 4.7 rebounds and is second on the team with 23 assists.

Point guard and two-time Conference Freshman of the Week Brooke Daniels is showing tantalizing upside for the Golden Grizzlies, evidenced by her 8.9 points and 27 assists, and has shown an impressive ability to drive the lane and reach the free throw line, leading the team with 39 attempts at the stripe.

SCOUTING GREEN BAY
Picked to finish second in the Preseason #HLWBB Coaches Poll, the Phoenix were dealt a tough situation following their December 3 victory over the IUPUI Jaguars when standout senior guard Hailey Oskey, a First Team All-League selection as a junior, took a leave of absence for personal reasons, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

After starting the first seven contests and averaging 9.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and better than two assists, Oskey has not appeared in Green Bay's last four games.

In Oskey's absence, classmate Sydney Levy moved into the starting lineup and has capitalized on her opportunity, as she currently is the lone Phoenix player averaging double figures at 10.1 points-per-game.

6-foot sophomore Maddy Schreiber is not far behind Levy at 9.8 points-per-contest and fellow sophomores Bailey Butler and Cassie Schiltz have also started every game for head coach Kevin Borseth.

In his 20^th overall season at Green Bay over two stints, Borseth has won over 460 games with the Phoenix and more than 770 across his entire head coaching career, which also includes stops with the Michigan Tech Huskies and Michigan Wolverines.

TELEVISION AND LIVE STATS LINKS
Thursday's action will air live on ESPN+ (subscription required) and can be accessed here.

Additionally, the Live Stats are available at this link.

ALL-TIME SERIES AND LAST MEETING
Dating to December 3, 2005, Oakland has squared off with the Phoenix 19 times, with Green Bay holding a 14-5 edge.

In the most recent clash, which came on February 10, 2022 at the O'rena, the Phoenix held off a fourth-quarter Golden Grizzly rally to win 61-57. Senior Kahlaijah Dean scored a team-high 13 for Oakland in this one, with Beatty, then a junior, adding 10.

SEASON-LONG STORYLINES

NEW FACES FOR GOLDEN GRIZZLIES
Faced with the graduations of Kahlaijah Dean, Kayla Luchenbach and Brianna Breedy, who combined to average 28.7 points and 9.9 rebounds last season, the Golden Grizzlies brought in a trio of diversely talented transfers in Raquel Ferrer-Bernad, Alexis Johnson and Linda van Schaik.

A Southfield A&T Warriors graduate, Johnson is a junior forward who played three seasons in Conference USA (C-USA) for the Marshall Thundering Herd, while Ferrer-Bernad is a graduate student point guard who came from a different C-USA program, the Florida International Panthers.

van Schaik, another junior, joined Oakland by way of the Sun Belt Conference's Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks and projects to provide the team with another 3-point shooting threat.

On top of the program's work in the transfer portal, the Golden Grizzlies' 2022 recruiting class features a couple of high-upside players in guard Brooke Daniels, a Miss Michigan Basketball candidate a year ago from L'Anse Creuse North, and Lianna Baxter, a 6-foot-1 forward who starred at Oconto and is one of the top-100 scorers in Wisconsin high school history.

BREANNE BEATTY HEADLINES GROUP OF RETURNING PLAYERS
Appearing in all 83 of the program's games over the last three seasons, and starting all but two of them, senior guard/forward Breanne Beatty was named to the Preseason All-Horizon League Second Team on October 18.

The pride of Worthington, Ohio, Beatty is Oakland's leading returning scorer at 9.7 points-per-game in 2021-22.

In addition to Beatty, guards Kennedie Montue and Aaliyah McQueen and forward Miriam Ibezim, all of whom of sophomores, are back with the program and are in line to contribute significantly right from the season's opening tip.

JEFF TUNGATE ENTERS 10^TH SEASON
Named the eighth head coach in program history on July 16, 2013, the 2022-23 campaign is the 10^th with Jeff Tungate at the helm.

Third on the school's all-time wins list with 106, Tungate and four-year veteran assistant Crystal Davis made some changes to the coaching staff ahead of this season, bringing in Golden Grizzly Hall of Famer and former Mercyhurst Lakers head coach Deanna Richard and Tim Webb, who has extensive coaching experience at both the high school and collegiate levels in Michigan, as assistant coaches.