Allendale, Mich. – The Wayne State men's basketball team's season came to an end Tuesday night as Grand Valley was able to comeback from a seven point second-half deficit to defeat the Warriors 47-44 in the opening round of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament. WSU had a chance to tie the game with eight seconds to play, but a three-point attempt from junior guard Bryan Smothers (Pontiac, Mich./Northern) fell short. The back-and-forth game had eight ties and seven lead changes.

The 44 points were a season-low for Wayne State (14-13, 12-10 GLIAC). WSU managed just two field goals in the final 10:20 of the second half. The Warriors entered the contest ranked 40th in the country in free throw percentage at 73.3 percent, but were only able to connect on 56.3 percent of their foul shots (9-for-16) on Tuesday.

Close losses haunted Wayne State all season, as WSU lost six GLIAC contests by five points or less.

Junior forward Jerry Oden (Detroit, Mich./Cass Tech) scored a game-high 13 points with Smothers being the game's second leading scorer with 12 points. Oden, redshirt freshman Ian Larkin (Detroit, Mich./Renaissance) and senior forward Bryan Edwards (Ypsilanti, Mich./Lincoln) each had two blocks. Larkin also grabbed a team-best five rebounds.

Senior guard Larry Edwards (Benton Harbor, Mich./Benton Harbor) had game-highs of four steals and four assists.

WSU scored 21 points off of 21 Laker turnovers while also scoring eight second-chance points off of 11 rebounds. The Warriors edged GVSU in points in the paint (26-24) and assists (12-8), but lost the shooting battle 40.5 percent (17-for-42) to 34.0 percent (17-for-50).

The first half set the tone for the whole night as the WSU and GVSU defenses stepped up to yield just a combined nine points through the first 3:23 of the opening period as WSU took a 5-4 lead with 16:37 left in the half.

From that point, the Warrior defense continued its relentlessness and held the Lakers scoreless for the next 4:01 minutes of play as WSU was able to improve its lead to 7-4 with 12:37 remaining in the stanza.

The two schools split the next 14 points and coming out of the third media timeout WSU led 14-11. But Grand Valley's Nick West scored the next four points to put the Lakers back in front and the Lakers' K'Len Morris added to the lead with a reverse layup to give GVSU a 17-14 lead. WSU went scoreless from the 8:02 mark to 4:26.

However, Smothers ended the skid with a jumper as Larkin then proceeded to grab an offensive rebound draw a foul and hit both foul shots to give WSU an 18-17 lead. The evenly matched squads then found themselves tied at 22-22 with 12 seconds to play in the half before Grand Valley made the most of the final possession of the half with Toreau Brown sinking a layup with one second remaining to put the Lakers up 24-22 heading into the break.

Neither team found success shooting in the first half as Grand Valley shot just 37.5 percent (9-for-24) from the field while WSU was able to hit just 34.8 percent (8-for-23) of its shots. The Warriors did score nine points off of nine Grand Valley turnovers in a half that featured five lead changes and five ties.

Smothers led Wayne State with six points with senior guard Bryan Wright (Warren, Ohio/Harding) adding five points. Junior center Ike Udanoh (Detroit, Mich./Warren Woods Tower) grabbed a team-high four rebounds in the first half.

The Warriors opened up the second half by holding Grand Valley without a point through the first 4:08 of the period. Wayne State was able gain the largest lead of the game after a triple by Wright put WSU up seven points (41-34) with 8:46 to play. Wayne State was on a 21-12 run through the third media timeout of the half that included eight straight Warrior points from Oden.

The turning point of the game then came in the form of a 7-0 GVSU run that tied the game up at 41-41 with 5:29 left in regulation. Wayne State made its final field goal of the night when Oden converted a layup to get the lead back for WSU at 43-41

Grand Valley outscored Wayne State 6-1 to end the game with the 47-44 victory. Neither team made a field goal in the final 3:41.

Brown led the Lakers with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting.

Tuesday night was the final collegiate games for Wright, Bryan Edwards and Larry Edwards. The three seniors played a combined 207 games.