DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (3-5 overall) is set to play two more non-conference games before flipping the calendar to 2025.  The Warriors will travel to Northwood (4-6 overall) on Thursday for a 7 p.m. start before hosting Redeemer University (3-7 overall) from nearby Canada on Saturday at 1 p.m.

STORYLINES
Wayne State is set for its final two games of the 2024 calendar year, at Northwood on Thursday night and home to Redeemer University on Saturday afternoon.  At 3-5 overall and coming off an 85-77 win over Michigan-Dearborn last Wednesday inside the Fieldhouse, the Warriors are in search of back-to-back victories for the first time this season.

Northwood has experienced a bit of an up-and-down campaign so far as well.  The Timberwolves have won just four of their first 10 games and have lost two straight, but were above the .500 mark at 3-2 early on.

Competing as a member of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA), Redeemer University is 3-7 overall, but will treat this game like an exhibition.  The Royals have gone 1-4 in their first five road contests, all of which were part of OCAA play.

THE SERIES
Longtime GLIAC foes, Wayne State leads the all-time series against Northwood by 11, 45-34.  With that being said, the Timberwolves have gotten the better of the Warriors when playing at home to the tune of 21-17.

Wayne State and Redeemer University will be meeting for the first time ever.

SCOUTING THE TIMBERWOLVES
Coached by first-year leader Tom Church, Northwood presents a trio of scorers averaging in double figures.  Those three players are graduate forward Elijah Watson (13.9 PPG, tied-for-13th in G-MAC), sophomore forward Jamison Eklund (12.2 PPG) and junior guard Will Young II (11.0 PPG).  Graduate forward JT Morgan is tops on the glass with 8.1 rebounds per contest, good for third in the league, while rookie guard Brayden Szamrej's 3.3 assists per outing is tied-for-ninth in the conference.  Getting back to Church, he took over the program in April following six seasons as the head coach at Tiffin where he was the Dragons' winningest coach in their Division II era (66-96 overall, .407 winning percentage).

SCOUTING THE ROYALS
Like Northwood, Redeemer University boasts three scorers averaging at least 10 points per game in junior guard Parker Davis (18.1 PPG), fifth-year guard Robert Mannella (13.2 PPG) and junior guard Brendan Morris (11.6 PPG).  Sophomore forward Ty Storie paces the Royals in boards per performance (7.9) and Mannella is dishing out a team-best 4.5 assists per contest.

LAST TIME OUT - VS. MICHIGAN-DEARBORN - DEC. 11
Michigan-Dearborn enjoyed a lead for nearly the first 10 minutes of the game and led by as many as six (14-8) in that span.  Wayne State then countered with 13 straight points over the course of nearly four minutes, a stretch in which it went 6-of-9 from the field with three different scorers.

Warriors contributing to that run included Carlos Paul III with six, Carmelo Harris with four and Kareem Aburashed with three.

Trailing by seven at that point (21-14), the Wolverines shrunk the deficit to as little as four on a pair of occasions (23-19 and 25-21), the second coming with just over six and a half minutes to play in the stanza.

WSU's Harris then drained his lone three-pointer and Tamario Adley cashed a lay-up to extend the margin back to nine (30-21).

From there until the intermission, UMD was as close as six (30-24 and 32-26), but the hosts utilized a 10-0 spurt for its biggest advantage of the half at 14, 40-26.  Heading into the locker room, the two squads were separated by 12 points, 44-32.

Coming out of the break, Michigan-Dearborn continued to chip away at Wayne State's lead.  Through the initial nearly eight minutes of the half, the Wolverines out-scored the Warriors by seven (18-11) and were within five (55-50) for the first time since the 6:36 mark of the first half.

WSU showed great resolve though pushing its advantage back to nine twice, 59-50 on an Aburashed dunk and 61-52 on a Paul III deuce.

UMD seemed to be up to the task thinning the deficit down to six at 61-55 and 63-57, but the home team was just as resilient.  Wayne State rattled off 14 of the next 18 points to open up its biggest lead of the night at 16, 77-61.  The Warriors' 14 points came from Paul III with five, Harris with four, Aburashed with three and Adley with a pair.

The closest the visitors could get after that point was six (81-75), but the clock said just 40 seconds remaining at that juncture.  Jordan Briggs converted a quartet of free throw attempts to Michigan-Dearborn's standalone lay-up, and Wayne State had won by eight.

Wayne State shot 51.5 percent (34-of-66) from the floor to Michigan-Dearborn's 43.9 percent (29-of-66).  The Warriors won the rebounding battle by just one (35-34), but cranked out 21 assists to just nine turnovers while the Wolverines accounted for 15 dimes and 13 giveaways.  WSU dominated in points in the paint (56-26) and bench scoring (35-5) as UMD used just one player off the bench.  Michigan-Dearborn had the upper hand in points off turnovers (14-8) and fast-break points (8-4).

Five Warriors scored in double figures including Paul III (20, tied career high), Harris (16), Adley (15), Briggs (10) and Aburashed with 10, his first game with that many this season.  Adley stuffed the stat sheet once again thanks to those 15 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals, the last three of which paced the team.  Wayne State's lone block was tallied by Harris, his first of the season.

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 is the 23rd consecutive season WSU basketball has been aired on 1400 AM.  Kevin Brechmacher is in 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.