DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (18-8 overall) advanced to the GLIAC semifinals with an 84-77 triumph over visiting Northwood University (18-9 overall) Wednesday evening at the Matthaei.

The Warriors will take a four-game winning streak into Saturday's second semifinal contest vs. Findlay  3 p.m.  Top-seeded Hillsdale will host Michigan Tech in the 1 p.m. semifinal tilt.  All three GLIAC Championship games (two semifinals and Sunday's 2 p.m. title game will be played at Hillsdale).

WSU nearly led wire-to-wire and built an 18-point lead late in the first half before settling for a 43-30 advantage at the intermisison.  The win was Wayne State's ninth in the last 10 games.  The Warriors were ranked ninth in the NCAA Regional Rankings released earlier today.

The Timberwolves only lead came in the fist 29 seconds as Wes Wilcox sank a pair of free throw attempts on the game's opening possession.  Junior guard Cole Prophet (Sandusky, Ohio) drained a three-point shot on Wayne State's first possession.  Junior forward Ian Larkin (Detroit, Mich./Renaissance) blocked a Cameron Joyce jumper and senior guard Dale Brundidge (Southfield, Mich./Detroit Country Day), playing in his 100th collegiate game, hit a jumper at the opposite end of the court.

After a NU lay-up, the Warriors answered with five consecutive points for a 10-4 lead three minutes into the contest.  Another 5-0 WSU run concluded with a dunk by senior center Ike Udanoh (Detroit, Mich./Warren Woods Tower) putting the Warriors in front 15-6.

Northwood responded with six straight point, but a lay-up by Prophet and a jumper by sophomore Gerald Williams-Taylor (Flint, Mich./Northern) extended the lead to seven (19-12) with just under 11 minutes left.

NU's Booker Stoudmire scored the next four points, but Williams-Taylor completed a conventional three-point play as did Udanoh on WSU's following possession pushing the lead back to nine (25-16).

After the Timberwolves had pulled within six (27-21), sophomore Bryan Coleman (Southfield, Mich./Lathrup) drained back-to-back triples giving the hosts a 12-point advantage (33-21) with just under sevne minutes remaining.  Sophomore Deon Dismuke (Detroit, Mich./Pershing) continued the Warrior run with a steal and lay-up and Larkin finished off the 12-0 run with a lay-up giving Wayne State its largest lead of the opening half at 18 points (39-21) with 3:46 left.

Northwood finished off the half by scoring nine of the final 13 points to cut the WSU lead to 13 (43-30) at the break.

The Warriors shot a blistering 67 percent (18-of-27) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, while the Timberwolves connected on 45 percent (9-of-20) of their shots.  Each team attempted six three-pointers with WSU holding a 3-2 edge in made triples.  Northwood was aided by 12 free throw attempts compared to five for WSU.

Wayne State scored the first eight points of the second half for a 21-point advantage (51-30) as NU missed its first four field goal attempts.  Joyce ended the field goal drought of over four minutes (dating back to the end of the first half) with a triple that was part of a 9-0 run by the Timberwolves.

Northwood had a 6-0 spurt just before the mid-point of the second half to pull within eight (55-47) with just over 11 minutes left.  A 7-2 Warrior run began with a jumper in the paint by Udanoh which gave him 1,000 collegiate points.  A triple by senior guard Stacey Waters (Detroit, Mich./Renaissance) pushed the lead to 13 (62-49) with 8:22 remaining.

The lead remained in double digits for the next two minutes until a three-pointer by NU's Bobby Lewis made it a nine-point contest (67-58) with 6:13 left.

Lewis scored four consecutive points for Northwood sandwiched around four straight made free throws by Brundidge, then Brundidge extended the lead to 11 with a lay-up on an in-bounds feed from Dismuke.

Four straight made foul shots for NU cut the Warrior lead to seven (73-66) with 2:11 left, but Udanoh and Brundidge each made two shots from the charity stripe in a double-bonus situation in a 36-second span making it an 11-point game (77-66) with 83 seconds left.

Northwood scored seven of the next eight points to pull within five (78-73) with 36 seconds remaining.

Udanoh split a pair from the foul line, grabbed a defensive rebound and made both foul shots with 18.6 seconds left giving the Warriors an 81-73 lead.  Joyce scored an uncontested lay-up and Waters split a pair at the charity stripe with 10.4 seconds on the clock.

Stoudmire had an offensive rebound and put-back making it 82-77 but Udanoh was fouled on the inbounds with 0.8 seconds left.  He sank both foul shots extending Wayne State's GLIAC post-season winning streak to four games.

Udanoh (WSU) and Lewis (NU) tied for game-high scoring honors with 20 points.  Udanoh and Larkin each had seven rebounds to lead all players.  Dismuke had eight points, four assists and two steals while playing a career-high 30 minutes.

Both teams cooled off in the second half as the Warriors shot 42 percent (10-of-24) to Northwood's 41 percent (13-of-32). 

The Timberwolves were able to stay in the game with hot shooting from the foul line making 26-of-29 for 90 percent.  Meanwhile, Wayne State made 24-of-31 for 77 percent.