ALLENDALE, Mich. -- In a battle of second-place teams, the Wayne State University men's basketball program (9-5, 6-4 GLIAC) battled but fell 63-56 at Grand Valley State (11-6, 7-3 GLIAC) on Thursday night.  The Warriors have lost four straight contests by six, five, four and seven points, respectively and led at halftime in three of those games.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• An 11-0 run by the Lakers early in the first half gave GVSU a 14-2 lead at the 15:41 mark.  Wayne State chipped away and trailed 16-7 with 11:45 left to play.  Three free throws from Nick Mutebi (Farmington Hills, Mich. / Univ. of Detroit Jesuit) and a put back by Michael Lewis (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Huron) trimmed the home lead to 18-14 at the 7:27 mark.  Grand Valley State extended its lead to 28-16 before a Ronald Booth (Detroit, Mich. / Consortium) triple kept the Green & Gold close with four minutes to play.  Jalen Adams (Saginaw, Mich. / Arthur Hill) jumped a passing lane and broke away for a layup and converted the three-point play to cut GVSU's lead to 28-22 at the 2:47 mark.  The deficit remained around four the rest of the half and the Lakers led 35-31 at intermission.  WSU's only shot 30.4 percent from the floor but the Warriors used a 15-of-17 mark at the charity stripe to supplement the offense.

• WSU started the second stanza slow and trailed 44-35 at the 16:29 mark.  Marcus Moore (Lansing, Mich. / Waverly) found room underneath the basket to trim the margin to 46-39 with 15:26 left in regulation.  Two free throws from Lewis at the 14:33 mark pulled WSU within six, 47-41.  Moore followed with a cutting layup to put the GVSU lead back at four, 47-43.  Key followed a missed jumper with a put back to tie the game at 47-47 with 12 minutes to play.  Karim Murray (Detroit, Mich. / Western International) connected on one of two free throws to give WSU its first lead of the game at 48-47.  A three-point play from Mutebi gave the Warriors a 53-49 advantage. At the final media break of the contest, the Warriors held onto a 54-53 lead at the 3:54 mark.  An Adams layup gave WSU a 56-55 lead but he was unable to convert on a three-point play opportunity.  However, a clutch Luke Ryskamp trey in the corner at the 44 second mark was too much to overcome for the Warriors as GVSU would go onto to win 63-56.

SEASON-HIGH FREE THROW ATTEMPTS
• The 22 made free throws was a season-high for WSU and the 28 attempts matched the most shot this season (at Lake Ere - 12/1/16).

WSU LEADERS
• Lewis and Adams both finished with 11 points to lead Wayne State.

GVSU LEADERS
• Ryskamp was the game's top scorer with 21 points, including an 11-of-12 mark at the free throw line.

UP NEXT
• The Warriors will travel to meet a first-place Ferris State team on Saturday with tip-off scheduled for 3 p.m.