Men's Basketball | 2/10/2016 9:45:00 AM

DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (6-14, 6-11 GLIAC) begins its final road trip of the season on Thursday at Lake Erie (8-15, 5-12 GLIAC and continues Saturday at #21 Ashland (19-4, 13-4 GLIAC) Saturday.   The Warriors have won three of their last four games including twice on their previous three-game road swing.  Those road wins at Walsh and Tiffin were the first two wins away from Detroit this season.  Wayne State has played the 21st toughest schedule in the country through games of Feb. 7th as WSU's past opponents have recorded a .564 winning percentage.  If David Greer were to lead WSU to five wins in its last five contests, which would obviously go a long way in helping the team's postseason aspirations, he would tie Ron Hammye's (1988-2000) program record of 212 coaching victories.

THE SERIES
Wayne State has an 8-1 advantage over Lake Erie in the all-time series, which began in 2010.  WSU won this season's first meeting, 67-42, in Detroit.  The Storm's only win in the series came last season, 72-67, in Painesville, Ohio.  The Warriors are 3-1 away from the Matthaei in the series.

WSU also leads the all-time series against Ashland 29-23.  The teams began playing in 1922.  The Eagles have won each the last four meetings, including earlier this season (68-61).  WSU is 10-14 at Ashland and Coach Greer is 7-6 on the road in his time at WSU.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Lake Erie is 8-15 overall and 5-12 in league games.  The Storm have lost seven of their last eight games.  Head coach Cliff Hunt is in his 10th season leading LEC and carries a 138-153 career record.  Andy Bosley is the team's leading scorer (14.7 PPG) and rebounder (5.7 RPG).  Trey Howard is scoring 13.3 points per night, while Sean Howard is averaging 10.2 points per contest.  Lake Erie leads the GLIAC with 9.6 three-pointers made per game and also averages 7.4 steals per night, which ranks fourth in the league.  LEC is scoring 72.6 points per game (12th in the league) and is allowing 75.3 points per contest (12th in the league).

Ashland enters this week ranked 21st in the NABC DII Coaches Poll carrying an overall record of 19-4 along with a 13-4 league mark.  John Ellenwood is in his seventh season and enters this week with a 103-80 record with the Eagles.  AU has won six straight.  Wendell Davis and Boo Osborne have combined for three GLIAC South Division Player of the Week honors.  Davis, a 6-6 junior forward, is averaging 18.1 points (seventh in the GLIAC) and 7.5 rebounds per contest (seventh in the GLIAC).  Davis also leads the team with 3.5 assists per contest. Marsalis Hamilton is the team's second-leading scorer at 12.1 points per night, while Osborne is averaging 12.0 points per game.  AU boasts the best scoring defense in the league, allowing just 65.3 points per contest, while grabbing the most defensive rebounds in the GLIAC at 28.5.

LAST WEEK'S RECAP
Wayne State notched its second road victory of the week with a 69-61 triumph at Tiffin on Thursday evening.  The first 12 minutes were a see-saw affair with four lead changes and four ties. Tiffin's last advantage was 15-13 following a triple by Terrell Mabins with 10:39 remaining in the first half.  Two foul shots by Tristan Wilson knotted the game at 15, with the last lead change going to WSU on a breakaway dunk by Marcus Moore.  Wayne State began the second half on a 7-0 run for the largest lead of the game (13 points at 38-25) with four different Warriors tallying points.  TU answered with five consecutive points prior to a jumper by Moore and a hook shot by Wilson pushed the lead to 12 (42-30).  Wayne State's lead was never fewer than six over the final nine minutes.  Clark Bishop's offensive rebound and put-back with 2:14 left was the Warriors last field goal, but WSU was 10-of-12 from the charity stripe in the final 1:42 to seal the win.    

Wayne State won for the third time in the last four outings registering a 55-51 home court victory over Ohio Dominican on Saturday afternoon at the Matthaei.  In a back-and-forth first half that saw seven lead changes, the Warriors led 25-21 at intermission.  The teams traded buckets in the early going of the second half with Wayne State leading from three to seven points for nearly the first 10 minutes, until a triple by ODU's Ronnie Williams cut the Warrior advantage to two (37-35).  A conventional three-point play by Michael Lewis with 5:18 remaining increased the WSU lead to seven (46-39).  An offensive foul on Wayne State with 18.0 seconds gave Ohio Dominican life, but Moore recorded his game-high fourth theft with five seconds remaining.  Moore made his second free throw in a double bonus situation, and after a 30-second timeout by the Panthers, their long in-bounds pass went over everyone and out-of-bounds at the far base line.

IN THE POLLS
The GLIAC released its preseason coaches poll on Oct. 28 and Wayne State was predicted to finish fourth in the South Division.  Clark Bishop was voted to the All-GLIAC South Division Second Team in balloting conducted by the league's head coaches.  The Warriors totaled 99 points, behind Ashland, Findlay and Walsh.

NCAA STATISTICAL RANKINGS
The Green & Gold rank 16th nationally (first in the GLIAC) with 14.1 offensive rebounds per game and 59th (sixth in the GLIAC) in fewest turnovers (255).  WSU is 70th nationally in scoring defense (71.7 PPG) and 73rd in rebounding margin (+3.7).

UDANOH EARNS PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONOR
Former Wayne State University basketball standout Ike Udanoh, currently with Bisons Loimaa, was selected as the Finnish League's Player of the Week, for the period ending Jan. 8th.  He had a double-double of 30 points and 15 rebounds, while his team beat Lapua (#9, 6-14) 89-78.  Udanoh was a three-year letterwinner (2009-12) for WSU after transferring from Long Island.  He finished 17th in career scoring with 996 points, seventh in field goal percentage (55.1 - min. 150 made), ninth in blocked shots (63) and 12th in rebounds (584).

GLIAC TOURNAMENT SCENARIOS
Wayne State is fighting for one of three remaining playoff spots.  Either the number three seed in the South Division or one of the two wild card spots.  A magic number of four (WSU losses or wins by the teams above WSU) would eliminate the Warriors postseason competition.

REBOUNDING ADVANTAGE
WSU has won the rebounding battle in 13 of the 20 games this season, including the last six games where WSU out-rebounded its opponents 243 to 197. WSU has notched five games where the rebounding margin was at least plus 10 including a season-high +14 advantage over Tiffin on Jan. 14th.

DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Joel Ndondo collected the first WSU double-double of the season at Ferris State with career-highs in points (14) and rebounds (10) on Jan. 3rd.  Michael Lewis collected his second and third career double-doubles in January.  He totaled 15 points and a season-high 11 rebounds vs. Tiffin on Jan. 14th and 19 points and 10 boards at Ohio Dominican on Jan. 16th.

COMCAST/XFINITY
Every men's basketball home game in 2016 will be broadcast live throughout the state of Michigan on Comcast CN 900.  Sean Baligian, Rod Beard and Joe Abramson will call the action. 

UP NEXT
WSU will conclude the three-game road trip at Malone on Feb. 18th at 8 p.m. before finishing the season at home with games against Walsh on Feb. 20th and "Senior Night" against Findlay on Feb. 25th.