DETROIT -- On Senior Night and the final game of the season, the Wayne State University men's basketball team (7-17 overall, 4-16 GLIAC) fell 83-63 to Ashland (17-11 overall, 10-10 GLIAC) on Thursday night.  Prior to the game senior guard Karim Murray (Detroit, Mich. / Western International) was honored for his four years at Wayne State.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Murray knocked down a baseline jumper to give the Warriors an early 5-2 lead at the 18:40 mark of the first half.  A turn around hook shot from graduate forward James Gordon IV (Shelbyville, Ky. / Chicago Simeon) pushed the home advantage to 9-5 with 16:31 left to play in the stanza.  The game was even at 9-9 at the arrival of the game's first media timeout at the 14:28 mark.  However, the momentum swung back to the Eagles as the visitors used a 16-0 run to take a 21-9 lead with 11:14 remaining.  Freshman forward Nate Talbot (Lake Orion, Mich.) trimmed the deficit to 10, 25-15 with a layup but Aaron Thompson answered with a triple, pushing Ashland's lead to 28-15 at the 5:51 mark.  Derek Koch gave the Eagles their largest lead of the night, 30-15, with a reverse layup.  A jumper from Murray with 3:39 brought WSU within 33-20 and a trey by sophomore guard LJ DeWolf (Ypsilanti, Mich. / Ann Arbor Huron) made it a 10-point game, 33-23, at the 3:13 mark.  Senior guard Brailen Neely (Detroit, Mich. / Western International) was fouled behind the arc to finish the first half and made two of his three free throws to put the intermission score at 38-27.

The Green & Gold started the second half with a layup by Neely and buckets from Talbot and Gordon to bring WSU within seven 40-33, with 16:23 left to play.  However, an old fashioned three-point play by Drew Noble extended AU's advantage to 45-33 at the 15:43 mark.  A fast break layup from Murray produced a three-point play to make it 49-44 in favor of the Eagles.  A jumper by Murray kept Wayne State close, 52-46, with 11:32 left in regulation.  Back-to-back layups by Neely trimmed the visitor's lead to 58-50 at the 9:27 mark.  At the six-minute mark AU led by 10, 65-55 and the Eagles would extend their lead to 77-58 with 2:46 remaining.  Ashland would coast to a 83-63 victory.

LEADING THE WARRIORS
Neely led Wayne State with 17 points, while Murray scored 15 in his final game of his career.  Gordon tallied 11 points and a team-best seven rebounds.

LEADING THE EAGLES
Noble posted 30 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Eagles attack.  Thompson (19), Koch (15) and Brandon Haraway (12) all finished in double figures.

ONE BIG THING
The Eagles collected 54 points in the paint compared to WSU's 24.