DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team will hit the road in GLIAC play for the first time in 2024 this week.  The Warriors will be on the west side of the state at Davenport on Thursday before traveling to Grand Valley State two days later.

STORYLINES
Wayne State split its first GLIAC week of 2024 by defeating Purdue Northwest 78-68 before falling to Parkside two days later, 76-58.  This week, the Warriors will look for their first road league win of the season when they travel to the west side of the state.  WSU will visit Davenport on Thursday and Grand Valley State on Saturday.

Davenport hasn't opened the 2023-24 season the way it envisioned winning just four of its first 12 games with an 0-3 start to GLIAC play.  As for Grand Valley State, the Lakers come in at 5-8 overall and 2-1 in league action with all five of their victories coming on their home floor.

THE SERIES
Wayne State and Davenport have split their 12 all-time meetings, but the Warriors have won two straight against the Panthers and four of the last six.  WSU is looking for back-to-back victories  in Grand Rapids for the first time ever.

Grand Valley State is ahead of Wayne State 54-37 in the series history as the Lakers have taken six of the last nine meetings.  The Warriors are looking for a second-straight win in Allendale for the first time since February 23, 2013 (75-57) and February 1, 2014 (69-64 OT).

SCOUTING THE PANTHERS
Davenport is led by 16-year veteran head coach Burt Paddock.  This season, Paddock and the Panthers boast one of the conference's best scorers in guard Marcedus Leech, Jr.  Leech, the GLIAC Preseason Player of the Year, is third in the league in scoring with 16.7 points per game and eighth in free throw percentage at 79.5 percent (35-of-44).  He's one of two DU players averaging double figures for scoring along with Saginaw Valley State transfer guard Myles Belyeu (11.4 PPG).  Belyeu leads DU in both rebounds and assists with 5.6 and 2.6 per contest, respectively.   Team wise, Davenport is fifth in the conference in scoring offense (75.0 PPG), but last in scoring defense (76.6 PPG).  The Panthers do excel in the steals department though ranking second in steals per game with 7.7.

SCOUTING THE LAKERS
As mentioned earlier, Grand Valley State is yet to win away from GVSU Fieldhouse Arena (0-5), but gets to stay there this week.  Second-year head coach Cornell Mann carries five scorers putting up at least 10 points per outing.  Those five players are forward Marius Grazulis (12.4 PPG), Britain Harris (11.7 PPG), William Dunn (11.2), Ethan Alderink (10.4 PPG) and Trevon Gunter (10.2 PPG).  Grazulis is second in the GLIAC in rebounds per game (9.4) Trevor Smith ranks tied-for-seventh in assists per contest (3.6).  Much like his first season, Mann likes to spread out playing time as eight different Lakers play at least 19 minutes per game compared to four for the Warriors.

LAST TIME OUT - VS. PARKSIDE
Parkside scored the game's first four points before Wayne State used a 9-0 run to go up by five, 9-4.  During that spurt, Ray Williams, Jr. led the way with five points, while Matt Coffey and Kaimen Lennox chipped in two  points apiece.

The Rangers clawed back to within two at 13-11 before the Warriors would go on to lead by as many as 10 at both 21-11 and 23-13.  The home team scored eight-straight points to capture the first 10-point advantage, which featured scoring from Kareem Aburashed with four points, Tamario Adley with two as well as Williams, Jr. and Lennox with one each.

Following the second 10-point margin, the closest the visitors could get was three (35-32) following a three-pointer from Sam DeVault at the 30-second mark.

UWP opened the second half by out-scoring WSU 22-3 over the course of seven minutes and that run put the Rangers up by 16, 54-38.  From there until the final buzzer, the closest the Warriors could get was 12 (54-42) and Parkside pushed its advantage to as many as 22 (74-52).

The Warriors shot 48.3 percent (14-of-29) in the first half to the Rangers' 37 percent (10-of-27).  The script flipped in the final 20 minutes as Wayne State went 8-of-30 from the floor (26.7 percent) to Parkside's 16-of-28 (57.1 percent).  UWP racked up 17 assists to just seven turnovers, while WSU dished out eight helpers to 12 giveaways.  The Rangers out-scored the Warriors 16-6 off turnovers, 31-22 in bench scoring and 11-5 on the fast break, while the hosts were ahead 30-22 in paint points.
Williams, Jr. (15 points) and Coffey (10 points) topped the scoring column, while those two and Carmelo Harris each brought down five rebounds.  Also on offense, Adley and Jordan Briggs tallied a pair of assists apiece.  Defensively, Aburashed notched the team's lone block and Adley secured two steals.

LEADING THE WARRIORS
Wayne State's leading scorer with the seventh-best mark in the GLIAC when it comes to points per game is Carmelo Harris at 14.4 points per contest.  Harris is one of five Warriors putting up at least 8.3 points per outing, along with Ray Williams, Jr. (11.1 PPG), Matt Coffey (9.6), Colin Golson, Jr. (8.9) and Tamario Adley (8.3 PPG).  Williams, Jr. is bringing down a team-high 6.4 rebounds per contest (fifth in the GLIAC) while Coffey (5.3) and Golson, Jr. (5.2) are both averaging at least five per game.  Assist wise, Adley is on top of the squad with 2.8 per performance and Harris has an average of 2.3.  Coffey (.676 field goal percentage - 2nd) and Adley (.531 - 13th) both rank among the top 15 in the GLIAC for efficiency.

LIVE ON WDTK
All men's basketball contests (both home and away) will air live on WDTK - The Patriot (1400 AM / 101.5 FM).  Fans can also listen to the audio online at PatriotDetroit.com.  This is the 22nd consecutive season WSU basketball has been aired on 1400 AM.

Kevin Brechmacher is in his eighth season calling the WSU men's games on WDTK.  He will be joined on the broadcast of home games by either Chuck Key (2014-18), Marcus Moore (2014-18) or Andy Dold (1998-2002), all former Warriors.

In addition, every men's basketball GLIAC contest will be televised on FloSports (flohoops.com) per the GLIAC agreement with FloSports.  In addition, all home non-conference games for the men will also be on FloHoops.