Men's Basketball | 2/4/2016 9:25:00 AM

DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (4-14, 4-11 GLIAC) will begin its second trip through the GLIAC South Division schedule this week starting on Thursday at Tiffin (10-12, 6-9 GLIAC) and continuing on Saturday by hosting Ohio Dominican (8-13, 5-10 GLIAC).  The Warriors earned their first road win of the season at Walsh on Jan. 30th, leading wire-to-wire.  Wayne State has played the 19th toughest schedule in the country through games of Feb. 2nd as WSU's past opponents recorded a .564 winning percentage.  As GLIAC South Division play continues this week, the winning percentage of the remaining opponents drops to .465 (219th toughest schedule in DII).

THE SERIES
Wayne State has a 14-3 advantage in the all-time series against Tiffin.  The Dragons won the season's first meeting (61-55) on Jan. 14th in Detroit.  WSU is 6-2 on the road in the series.  David Greer, who served as Tiffin's head coach for one season, is 12-3 all-time against TU.  The Warriors won the first 11 match-ups.

WSU also leads the all-time series against Ohio Dominican 6-3 but the Panthers won 88-64 on Jan. 16th to secure their third straight win in the series.  The Warriors are 3-1 vs. ODU in Detroit.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Tiffin is 10-12 overall and 6-9 in league games. The Dragons have lost two straight under third-year head coach Jerry Buccilla, who carries a 29-49 career record into Thursday's match-up.  Khaleal McCormick was averaging 20.5 points per contest in his first two games but has not played since due to injury. Tony Kynard is scoring 16.2 points per night, while Chrisean Marsden is chipping in 13.4 points per contest and is this week's GLIAC South Division Player of the Week after averaging 18 points and 12.5 boards per game.  As a team, Tiffin is scoring 72.2 points per game and allowing 74.1. The Dragons are shooting 42.2 percent from the floor, 31.1 percent from three-point range and 71.8 percent from the free throw line. One of the better rebounding teams in the conference, Tiffin is second in the league at 40.0 boards per game, including 13.6 offensive rebounds per contest (second in the GLIAC).

Ohio Dominican is 8-13 overall and 5-10 in league games.  Dan Evans has compiled a 22-53 mark in his third season as head coach of the Panthers after spending time as an assistant at Hillsdale.  ODU had lost two straight, before beating Tiffin. ODU will host Findlay before concluding the week in Detroit.  The Panthers go-to-guy is Trent Weaver, who leads the team in scoring (16.0 PPG) and rebounding (9.5 RPG), which ranks third in the GLIAC.  Ronnie Williams is averaging 13.9 points per game and is one the league's better free throw shooters at 88.1 percent.  Chad Nelson is scoring 12.5 points per night, while Shemar Waugh is the team's catalyst with 4.1 assists per contest.  ODU is scoring 78.1 points (sixth in the league) per game, while allowing 76.3 points (14th in the league) per contest.

LAST WEEK'S RECAP
Wayne State went 1-2 last week.  WSU opened with a home overtime loss to Malone.  There were six lead changes in the first 18 minutes plus three ties including 35-35 at intermission.  Jay Parker made two free throws in a double bonus situation with 15.0 seconds left, but Ronald Booth was fouled driving down the lane with 4.9 seconds on the clock.  He made both free throw attempts sandwiched around a Malone timeout.  Parker went coast-to-coast with the in-bounds, but his last second lay-up attempt was reviewed by the officials who waves off the original good call sending the game into overtime.  The Pioneers scored the first seven points of the extra session and would hang on for the one-point win.    WSU, which led wire-to-wire at Walsh were paced by Tristan Wilson who tallied a team-high 19 points along with a game-best four blocked shots.  Clark Bishop contributed 16 points and a team-best seven rebounds, while Booth added 15 points and George Spencer chipped in a then career-high 11 points.  Wayne State started out strong but a late first half surge by Findlay gave a UF a seven-point advantage (37-30) at halftime.  The second half was nearly even with Oilers holding a 39-38 scoring edge for the 76-68 victory over the Warriors.  Booth recorded a team-high 19 points, while Wilson chipped in with 16 points and a game-best five blocked shots.  Spencer contributed a career-high 12 points off the bench.

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 (first in the GLIAC) with 14.3 offensive rebounds per game and 20th nationally (fifth in the GLIAC) in fewest turnovers (215). 

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).

AWAY FROM THE MATTHAEI
The triumph at Walsh on Saturday was WSU's first road victory of the season.  Last season, the Warriors lone road win came at Northern Michigan on Dec. 15, 2015.

REBOUNDING ADVANTAGE
WSU has won the rebounding battle in 11 of the 18 games this season, including a decisive 41-18 advantage over Michigan Tech.  WSU grabbed 15 offensive boards in that contest on Dec. 13th.  Those offensive rebounds led to 21 second-chance points.  WSU out-rebounded Ferris State 43 to 41, leading to 18 second-chance points.  WSU hauled in 44 rebounds against Hillsdale and won that rebounding battle 44-42.  The Warriors collected their second-largest rebounding margin of the season against Tiffin, winning the rebounding battle 47-33 (+14).  In the 68-61 loss to #23 Ashland, WSU out-rebounded the Eagles 48-42 including a season-high 24 offensive boards, leading to 26 second-chance points.  In each of the last four contests, WSU has won the rebounding battle including a plus-10 rebounding advantage in the win at Walsh.

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 start another three-game road swing with a battle at Lake Erie on Feb. 11th at 7:30 p.m.  The road trip continues at Ashland on Feb. 13th at 3 p.m before concluding at Malone on Feb. 18th at 8 p.m.