DETROIT -- After a short layoff, the Wayne State University men's basketball program (4-3 GLIAC) will return to the court against Purdue Northwest (5-4 GLIAC) inside the Matthaei.  The series tips-off on Friday night at 6:00 PM before the teams conclude the weekend on Saturday at 2:00 PM.

STORYLINES
Following the postponement of the Grand Valley State series, Wayne State will host Purdue Northwest this weekend on Friday (6:00 p.m.) and Saturday (2:00 p.m.).  

The Warriors will look to gain ground in the league standings, where they are tied-for-second in the South Division with GVSU.  One of the Laker games will be made up on Tuesday (Feb. 9th) with a 4:00 p.m. tip-off in Allendale.

THE SERIES
Wayne State leads 4-2 in the all-time series versus Purdue Northwest.  WSU has won all three meetings at home, including a thrilling 80-79 overtime victory last season.  The Pride have won two of the three contests in Indiana.

SCOUTING THE PRIDE 
Purdue Northwest is 5-4 and has won four of its last six games, including a weekend sweep of Northwood.  Head coach Boomer Roberts is in his third season leading the PNW program.  Senior forward Jyrus Freels leads the team in scoring at 15.2 points per night to go with 5.7 rebounds per game and an impressive .609 field goal percentage.  Gregory Boyle is scoring 12.4 points per game, while Anthony Barnard is contributing 11.7 points per contest.  Vincent Miszkiewicz is league's top rebounder at 10.7 boards per game and is averaging 11.4 points per contest.  As a team, PNW is scoring 76.7 points per game and allowing 76.6 points per night.  The Pride are shooting .464 from the floor, .326 from behind the arc and .757 at the free throw line.

LAST TIME OUT 
WSU trailed for the majority of the game against Ashland on Jan. 26th, but a strong second half on both ends of the floor powered the Warriors to a thrilling 58-50 victory.  Wayne State held the Eagles scoreless over the final 4:29 to complete the comeback.

Darian Owens-White finished with a game-high 23 points and grabbed five rebounds to go with three assists.  Brailen Neely scored 10 second-half points to finish with 15 points, while collecting five assists and four steals.  Avery Lewis tallied a game-high 12 rebounds, while Antonio Marshall poured in 11 points and blocked five shots.

CLEANING THE GLASS
The Warriors have excelled rebounding the basketball so far this season.  WSU leads the league in rebounding margin per game (+5.1), winning the rebounding battle in five of the seven games.  In addition, Wayne State ranks first in the GLIAC in total rebounds per game at 37.4.

FEELING CHARITABLE
The Warriors went 25-of-26 (.962) against Davenport on January 16th from the charity stripe.  That percentage is the second-best single-game performance at the free throw line with at least 15 made over the last 20 seasons.

SPREADING IT AROUND
In the win over Davenport on January 16th, all five starters scored in double figures.  It was the first time that has happened since December 7, 2019.

GLIAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Junior Darian Owens-White was named GLIAC South Division Player of the Week on January 19th.

It is the first weekly honor of his career and the first for a WSU men's basketball player since Brailen Neely earned the award on Feb. 17th of last season.

In just his third and fourth games back after a 22-month hiatus due to an injury, redshirt junior Darian Owens-White is found his scoring touch.

After totaling 35 points in the opening weekend split at Lake Superior, Owens-White tallied 55 points in two home court victories over Davenport.  For the week, he was 15-of-32 (47 percent) from the floor, including 9-of-14 (64 percent) from beyond the arc.  Owens-White was a stellar 16-of-17 (94 percent) from the charity stripe, while adding nine rebounds, six assists and four steals.  

Owens-White was limited to 22 total points in the two games at Northwood, but rebounded for a 23-point performance in the win over Ashland.

WSU BACKCOURT
The guard duo of Brailen Neely and Darian Owens-White should be fun to watch this season.  Neely was a First Team All-GLIAC honoree last season and Owens-White was a Second Team selection in 2018-19 before missing the 2019-20 season due to an injury.

Neely averaged 19 points, 7.6 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game last season and Owens-White poured in 16.7 points per night along with 2.9 assists per contest, while shooting nearly 47 percent from behind the arc in 2018-19.

BENCH SCORING
It was a welcome sight to see WSU's bench carrying the weight in the season-opening win with 28 points, which is 10 more than the Warriors received in any game last year from non-starters.  The Green & Gold followed that with 17 points off the bench during the January 16th contest vs. the Panthers.

On average, the Warriors are getting 13.1 points per game from their bench this season compared to 5.5 points per contest during the 2019-20 season.

UNIQUE SCHEDULE
The 2021 Wayne State University men's basketball schedule will feature 18 GLIAC contests.

The GLIAC was divided into two divisions with each school playing the other five divisional opponents twice (two at home for a weekend; two on the road for a weekend; along with a home-and-home series with its travel partner).  Each institution will play four of the six opponents in the other division (two at home for a weekend; two on the road for a weekend) for 18 games.

GREER BACK FOR 20TH SEASON
Head coach David Greer is in his 20th season as the top man on the Warriors' bench.  He surpassed the school record for years as head men's basketball coach last season. The previous mark was held by Newman Ertell (1929-48) and Joel Mason (1948-66) at 18 years on the WSU bench.  

WARRIOR ALL-ACCESS
Every home game can be viewed live on Warrior All-Access for free this season.  Simply log on to WSUAthletics.com and click the video camera icon at the bottom of the home page to see the streaming schedule or watch past games.  In addition, that video camera icon can be found on the schedule page next to each game.

LIVE ON WDTK
Kevin Brechmacher will call every contest live on WDTK - The Patriot (1400 AM / 101.5 FM).  Fans can also stream the action online at PatriotDetroit.com.