DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (0-2 overall) will make its 2024-25 home debut on Sunday at 2 p.m. against Findlay (3-0 overall).  It will mark the beginning of a stretch in which the Warriors will play six of the next eight games inside the friendly confines of the WSU Fieldhouse.

STORYLINES
Wayne State will make its 2024-25 home debut after an 0-2 road trip to begin the season that featured trips to a pair of GLVC opponents in Lincoln (Mo.) and Indianapolis.  The Warriors outscored the Blue Tigers 38-24 in the second half, but came up short 55-52.  Then they were ahead of the Greyhounds by as many as 11 in the second half and one with just over two minutes remaining before the home team was able to retake the lead for good.

Findlay is off to a perfect 3-0 start to its campaign thanks to wins over Quincy 97-79, Truman 97-73 and Northwestern Ohio 130-87, all of which were at home.  The Oilers haven't started their season with three victories since the 2020-21 season.

THE SERIES
Wayne State and Findlay have met 47 times in the all-time series, which the Oilers lead 30-17, but this will be their first meeting since the 2016-17 season.  Both squads were members of the GLIAC then, but UF switched over to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) officially on July 1, 2017.

Findlay is riding a six-game winning streak against Wayne State and has been on the right end of the scoreboard for eight of the teams' last 10 meetings.  The last time the Warriors defeated the Oilers came on Jan. 5, 2013 and they needed overtime to do so.  WSU bested 24th-ranked UF 65-61 inside the Matthaei.  Eight of their last 10 showdowns have been decided by eight points or less, including two by just one possession.

SCOUTING THE OILERS
Findlay is coached by 14th-year veteran, Charlie Ernst, the owner of two Sweet 16 appearances, six NCAA Tournament showings, three G-MAC championships and three GLIAC Tournament titles.  In those 13-plus campaigns, Ernst has ammassed an overall record of 275-110, which is good for an .714 winning percentage.

So far this season, Ernst can boast six different scorers averaging at least 10 points per game.  Those six Oilers include Will Ajancic (20.3 PPG), Ian Ioppolo (18.3), Jake Bishop (11.7), Jagger Landers (11.7), Mason Brandt (10.7) and Anthony Johnson (10.0). Ajancic (team-high 4.3 rebounds per game), Bishop, Landers, Johnson and Josh Thorbahn have started all three games for UF.  Max Roth has been Findlay's best distributor thus far accounting for 6.3 assists per performance, second in the conference.

Preseason poll wise, Findlay was picked to finish sixth in the 12-team G-MAC.  The 2023-24 edition of the Oilers finished at 12-16 overall (9-11 G-MAC), their first sub-.500 campaign since the 1981-82 season when they went 9-17.  That came before a streak of 40 consecutive winning seasons, the longest such streak in Division II at the time it ended.

LAST TIME OUT - AT UINDY
Wayne State could not have asked for a better start accounting for 14 of the game's first 16 points in a run that lasted about three and a half minutes.  During that span, the Warriors were a perfect 5-of-5 from the field, including 2-for-2 from three, without a single turnover and four different scorers contributing.

Those four were Carmelo Harris with five, Carlos Paull III with four, Ray Williams, Jr. with three and Rob Lee, Jr. with two.

Indianapolis settled in though and did so with a 15-4 spurt that elapsed nearly eight minutes and cut the deficit to one, 18-17, at the 9:38 mark.  Five different Greyhounds found the scoring column in that stretch as the home team went 7-of-13 from the floor.

Paull III helped his team stem the tide thanks a two-pointer in the paint that expanded WSU's advantage back to three, 20-17.  However, UI's Tucker Tornatta drilled a triple and dunked one in to put the hosts ahead for the first time at 22-20 with 7:47 remaining in the half.  Then, his teammate Brody Whitaker converted a layup for Indianapolis' biggest lead of the half at four, 24-20.

WSU was up to the task though with its second 14-2 outburst of the night that pushed the visitors ahead by eight, 34-26, and took the clock down to under 90 seconds.  Harris notched eight points to fuel the fire while Adam Ayrault added a pair of treys for all of his six points.

In the final 80 ticks of the stanza, the Greyhounds scored six points to the Warriors three making the halftime margin five, 37-32.


Coming out of the locker room, Wayne State used a 9-3 frenzy to extend its lead to 11 at 46-35.  Tamario Adley accounted for four of those 11 while Harris, Jordan Briggs and Paul III added two, two and one, respectively.

Neither team scored for nearly two minutes of game time before Indianapolis rattled off 14 of 16 points to go ahead for the first time in the second half, 49-48.  That lead change was the first of six in the final 11 minutes of the game along with seven lead changes.

As mentioned above, the sixth of those lead changes came when Rob Lee, Jr. sank a pair of free throws to make it 64-63 in favor of the Green & Gold at the 2:19 juncture.  In the midst of the Greyhounds regaining the lead at 65-64, the Warriors turned the ball over on three straight possessions.

UIndy then made one of two at the free throw line, led by two at 66-64 and WSU's Adley had a chance to tie it up with a layup.  However, the junior drove too far under the basket, missed it and the home team was able to put the game on ice with two more at the charity stripe.  Adley hit a three at the buzzer, but it was too little, too late.

GLIAC PRESEASON POLL
Wayne State was picked to finish fifth out of 11 schools in the 2024-25 GLIAC Preseason Poll.  Rob Lee, Jr., the league's reigning Freshman of the Year, was named Preseason All-GLIAC Second Team.  Each head coach ranked the other 10 teams with Lake Superior State taking nine of the 10 first-place votes and 98 total points.  The other three squads in front of Wayne State included Ferris State in second (one first place, 88 points), Northern Michigan in third (one first place, 80 points) and Grand Valley State in fourth (77 points).  Trailing the Warriors were Michigan Tech (50 points), Parkside (50 points), Saginaw Valley State (41 points), Purdue Northwest (32 points), Davenport (17 points) and Roosevelt (15 points).

2024-25 BROADCAST CREWS
All men's basketball regular-season contests (both home and away) will air live on WDTK - The Patriot (1400 AM / 101.5 FM), except the two non-Division 2 games (Dec. 11 vs. Michigan-Dearborn and Dec. 21 against Redeemer).  Fans can also stream the action online at PatriotDetroit.com.  This will be the 23rd consecutive season WSU basketball has been aired on 1400 AM.  Kevin Brechmacher returns for his ninth 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/Tartars.  In addition, every 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, including the two aforementioned contests on Dec. 11 and Dec. 21.