BIG RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (7-13 overall, 4-9 GLIAC) was on the road Thursday night to face Ferris State (19-6 overall, 10-4 GLIAC) inside Jim Wink Arena. The Bulldogs proved to be too much to handle for the Warriors as the home team won by a score of 85-58.

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
Ferris State scored eight of the game's first 10 points before Wayne State rattled off 11 points in a row to go up by five, 13-8. However, the home team punched back with 11-consecutive points of its own to regain a six-point advantage, 19-13. The closest the visitors could get before halftime was four (31-27, 33-29) and Ferris State pushed the margin to as large as 11 (40-29, 42-31), the spread heading into the intermission.

Second Half
Out of the break, the Bulldogs kept the pressure on with seven of the initial nine points to increase the deficit to 16, 49-33. At the 14:30 mark, the Warriors' Kylin Grant (Detroit, Mich. / Renaissance) hit a triple to pull his team within nine, 53-44, and the away team would cut it to nine again with 11:42 to play (59-50) after a Justice Gordon (Brampton, Ont. / Halton Prep) three-pointer, but never got any closer. The host would go on to lead by as many as 28 (81-53, 83-55) before the final 27-point difference.

TEAM STATS
Ferris State out-rebounded Wayne State by 19, 49-30, and racked up 24 assists to the Warriors' 13. The Bulldogs shot 49.3 percent (33-of-67) from the field and WSU answered that with a clip of 37.3 percent (22-of-59).

LEADING THE WARRIORS
Ray Williams, Jr. (Detroit, Mich. / Edison Public School Academy) was one of three scorers in double figures for WSU thanks to a career-high 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting (2-of-4 from three) along with Kaimen Lennox (12 points) (Kansas City, Mo. / Truman) and Carmelo Harris (12 points) (Flint, Mich. / Beecher). A trio of Warriors finished with three assists including Lennox, Matt Coffey (Detroit, Mich. / Martin Luther King) and Cortez Jackson (Detroit, Mich. / St. Clair Shores Lake Shore) while Jackson was on top of the rebound department with five. Defensively, Williams and Jackson each notched a pair of steals and Nate Talbot (Lake Orion, Mich. / Lake Orion) tallied the team's lone block.

LEADING THE BULLDOGS
Three players scored at least 10 points including Ethan Erickson off the bench with a game-high 20 points, Solomon Oraegbu with 19 points and Ben Davidson with 10 points. Erickson went 6-of-11 from behind the arc, Dolapo Olayinka brought down 12 boards to go with three steals, and Amari Lee dished out six assists.

UP NEXT
Wayne State will wrap up the four-game road trip with a meeting at Lake Superior State on Saturday. The opening tip in Sault Ste. Marie is scheduled for 3 p.m.