Men's Basketball | 2/23/2016 2:22:00 PM

DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (7-17, 7-14 GLIAC) concludes its season on Thursday against Findlay (19-7, 16-5 GLIAC).  WSU will honor just one player exhausting his eligibility in graduate student Darius Stevens.  The Warriors will have 11 returning upperclassmen on the roster next season including Michael Lewis, Clark Bishop and Joel Ndondo as seniors.  As it stands, WSU will return 99 percent of its scoring from this season.  WSU has played the 10th toughest schedule in the country through games of Feb. 22 as WSU's past opponents have recorded a .561 winning percentage. 

In addition, the men's basketball program will host an alumni event with head coach David Greer on Thursday night, which include a meet and greet with the 15th-year head coach and a facility tour.

THE SERIES
Wayne State trails 17-28 in the all-time series against Findlay, including a 76-68 UF home victory on Feb. 1.  The Oilers have won four in a row with WSU's last triumph coming on Jan. 5, 2013, as the Green & Gold upset 24th-ranked Findlay (65-61) in overtime in Detroit.  WSU is 13-7 at home in the series and Coach Greer is 7-24 against UF (6-7 at home). 

SCOUTING THE OILERS
Findlay has clinched a home quarterfinal game in next week's GLIAC Tournament and enters Thursday at 19-7 overall and 16-5 in league games.  UF has won 14 of its last 16 contests with the two losses coming on the road at Ashland and Lake Erie in overtime.  The Oilers can clinch the No. 2 seed with a win and an Ashland loss.  Head coach Charlie Enrst is in his fifth season and carries a 89-28 record with UF.  The Oilers are the second-best shooting team in the league at 47.4 percent.  Martyce Kimbrough is leading the team in scoring at 15.4 points per night.  Taren Sullivan is scoring 13.0 points per game, while John Staley is averaging 10.8 points per contest and a team-high 5.4 rebounds per game. Sullivan and Tyler Stern-Tucker both are collecting 4.5 rebounds per contest.  Austin Gardner is the team's main distributor at 2.8 assists per game.

LAST WEEK'S RECAP
Wayne State was unable to overcome a slow start falling 73-63 at Malone on Feb. 18.  The host Pioneers scored 15 of the game's first 18 points as the Warriors made just one field goal in the first five minutes of the contest.  Wayne State was unable to get closer than nine the rest of the half as the Warriors shot just 29 percent (10-of-34) from the field in the opening 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, Malone made 52 percent (14-of-27) of its shots including 4-of-9 from behind the arc.  The Pioneers led 38-25 at intermission despite WSU holding a 21-17 edge in rebounding.  A 12-2 MU run increased WSU's deficit to 19 (52-33) at the 13:10 mark of the second half.  Ronald Booth twice made field goals after Malone buckets to keep the margin at eight.  Following a lay-up by Bishop, Booth sandwiched a pair of baskets around a Pioneer hoop to make it a seven-point contest (61-54) with 6:04 remaining.  After a Malone steal and fast-break lay-up by Jay Parker, Key had back-to-back field goals and made a free throw on the second bucket to complete an old-fashioned three-point play and pull the Warriors within four (63-59) at the 3:03 mark.  Malone made 7-of-8 from the foul line in the final two minutes to secure the win.

Wayne State suffered an 85-72 setback to visiting Walsh on Saturday afternoon at the Matthaei.  The Warriors raced out to a 6-1 lead just 2:30 into the contest as Michael Lewis made his lone triple of the game and Marcus Moore followed by splitting a pair at the charity stripe then added a fast-break jumper.  Moore's field goal would be WSU's last points until another Moore jumper at the 11:26 mark.  During the scoreless streak, the Cavaliers tallied 20 consecutive points to turn a five-point deficit into a 15-point advantage.  Walsh went on a 9-2 run for its largest lead of the opening 20 minutes at 18 points (39-21), but the Warriors responded by ending the first half on 10-2 run over the final 3:15 to trail by 10 (41-31) at intermission.  Chuck Key started the second half scoring with a jumper, but the Cavaliers rattled off six straight points.  WSU's deficit ranged between 12 and 17 points until a Moore lay-up and two foul shots by Ronald Booth at the 11:59 mark.   Booth tallied 11 points on three triples and a lay-up in less than a three-minute span to pull the Warriors within five (66-61) with 7:26 remaining.  Wayne State was within five again after a lay-up by Key, but Walsh answered with a 7-1 run over the next 3:20 to regain a double-digit advantage at 75-64 and would go on to win by 13.

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 19th nationally (first in the GLIAC) with 13.83 offensive rebounds per game, 50th (fifth in the GLIAC) in scoring defense (70.8 PPG), 64th (sixth in the GLIAC) in fewest turnovers (292), 80th in (fifth in the GLIAC) rebounding margin (+3.5) and 82nd (fourth in the GLIAC) in blocks per game (3.5 BPG).  Ronald Booth ranks 87th nationally (ninth in the GLIAC) with his 84.1 free throw percentage.  

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).

REBOUNDING ADVANTAGE
WSU has won the rebounding battle in 14 of the 24 games this season, including seven of the last nine games where WSU out-rebounded its opponents 381 to 334.  WSU has notched six 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 was aired live throughout the state of Michigan on Comcast CN 900.  Sean Baligian, Rod Beard and Joe Abramson will call the action.