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Wayne State University Athletics

Carmelo Harris - 2024 vs. Tiffin
Izzy Rincon
Carmelo Harris led all scorers with 16 points, 12 of which came from behind the arc.
54
Tiffin Tiffin 1-5,0-0 G-MAC
84
Winner Wayne St. (MI) Wayne 1-3,0-0 GLIAC
Tiffin Tiffin
1-5,0-0 G-MAC
54
Final
84
Wayne St. (MI) Wayne
1-3,0-0 GLIAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Tiffin Tiffin 33 21 54
Wayne St. (MI) Wayne 43 41 84

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Cooper Weidenthaler, Sports Communications Specialist

Men's Basketball Rolls Past Tiffin 84-54 in First Win of Season

Wayne State shot 58.9 percent from the field, its highest clip in over seven years.

DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (1-3 overall) jumped into the win column for the first time this season on Saturday afternoon thanks to a blowout victory over Tiffin (1-5 overall), 84-54.  The Warriors shot 58.9 percent (33-of-56) from the field, their highest-ever clip inside the Fieldhouse and program's best in over seven years.

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
Wayne State's Carlos Paul III (Southfield, Mich. / Cornerstone Lincoln-King [Missouri State-West Plains]) started and capped off a 10-4 run that lasted the first nearly four and half minutes of the game.  Paul III's five of those 10 points were joined by another five from Rob Lee, Jr. (Flint, Mich. / Beecher).

Following four straight Tiffin points that cut the deficit to a pair at 10-8, the Warriors rattled off 12 points in a row to go ahead by 14, 22-8.  Jordan Briggs (Muskegon, Mich.) was responsible for five of those 12 points while Tamario Adley (Detroit, Mich. / Warren De La Salle [Macomb CC]) added four and Lee, Jr. cashed his second triple.

TU and WSU would split the next six field goals, but the home team's advantage remained in double-digits at 12, 27-15, with just under 10 minutes to go until the intermission.  Then, Wayne State used another 10-4 spurt to take its biggest lead of the first half at 18, 37-19.

Four different scorers fueled that fire including Adley with three, Adam Ayrault (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North) with three, Kelvin Tamakloe (Accra, Ghana / Spring Creek Academy [Blinn College]) with two and Briggs with two.

The Warriors would lead again by 18 at 39-21 before a halftime margin of 10, 43-33.

Second Half
Adley opened the stanza with a free throw and layup that stretched his team's lead back to 13, 46-33, before Tiffin's Allen Fordham hit a three-pointer to make it a 10-point game, 46-36.  From there until the final buzzer, Wayne State's advantage was never smaller than 10 and grew as large as 33 (77-44, 82-49).

The Warriors outscored the Dragons 41-21 in the final 20 minutes and shot 62.5 percent (15-of-24) to the away team's 30.8 percent (8-of-26) in that span.

TEAM STATS
As mentioned above, Wayne State shot 58.9 percent for the night, the team's most efficient output since Nov. 12, 2017 against Kentucky Wesleyan (62.7 percent, 37-of-59) inside the Matthaei.  Tiffin countered that clip with an even 40 percent (22-of-55).  The Warriors out-rebounded the Dragons by eight (32-24) including eight on the defensive glass (25-17) limiting the opponent's second-chance opportunities.  WSU racked up 22 assists to just nine turnovers while TU gave the ball away 13 times to 14 dimes.  Wayne State controlled the other major scoring categories including points off turnovers (20-7), second-chance scoring (12-4) and bench points (33-18).

LEADING THE WARRIORS
Five Warriors scored in double-figures including Carmelo Harris (Flint, Mich. / Beecher) with a game-high 16, Paul III (13), Briggs (11), Adley (10) and Jon Brantley (Farmington Hills, Mich. / Brother Rice [Lafayette College]) with 10.  Adley was on top of the team's rebounding department with six and tied for the squad lead in assists with Harris thanks to five apiece.  KJ Oduor (Kisumu, Kenya / Spire (Ohio) Academy [Western Carolina, College of Southern Idaho, Central Michigan]) notched Wayne State's lone block while Lee, Jr. and Ray Williams, Jr. each tallied two steals.  All 11 players that saw action for the Green & Gold found the scoring column including Bryce Esman's first two points of the year and Oduor's first point as a Warrior.

LEADING THE DRAGONS
Fordham paced the Dragons in scoring with 15 points and John Muhammad added 12 as Tiffin's only other player in double-figures.  Caleb Bates brought down five boards, KJ Pruitt dished out six assists and Dekyre Fuller stole a pair while Bates and D'monyae Davis each registered a block.

UP NEXT
Wayne State will travel to Lewis (2-2 overall) on Tuesday for an 8 p.m. eastern time tip inside the Flyers' Neil Carey Arena.

 
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