Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Wayne State University Athletics

Jordan Briggs - 2024 vs. Davenport
Zack Belsky/WSU Athletics
Jordan Briggs tied his personal best in points with a team-high 19 in his first career start.
67
Davenport Daven 2-5,0-1 GLIAC
76
Winner Wayne St. (MI) Wayne 2-4,1-0 GLIAC
Davenport Daven
2-5,0-1 GLIAC
67
Final
76
Wayne St. (MI) Wayne
2-4,1-0 GLIAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Davenport Daven 33 34 67
Wayne St. (MI) Wayne 32 44 76

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

Free Throw Barrage Pushes Men's Basketball Past Davenport

Wayne State went 25-of-30 at the free throw line to Davenport's 10-of-21.

DETROIT -- Trailing Davenport (2-5 overall, 0-1 GLIAC) by as many as five points (50-45), the Wayne State University men's basketball team (2-4 overall, 1-0 GLIAC) used a 22-6 run late in the second half to pull away and win the league opener by nine, 76-67.  The Warriors took care of business in their first home conference opener since 2018.

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
The game's first 20 total points scored and nearly five minutes of game time saw a combined three ties and two lead changes.  Ray Williams, Jr. (Detroit, Mich. / Edison Public School Academy) made the second of those two deadlocks happen at 10-10 with a layup that opened a 14-3 Wayne State run that lasted over seven minutes.

Once it was done, the Warriors had a nine-point advantage (22-13) and five different players contributed to those 14 points.  They were Jordan Briggs (Muskegon, Mich.) with four, Carlos Paul III (Southfield, Mich. / Cornerstone Lincoln-King [Missouri State - West Plains]) and Jon Brantley (Farmington Hills, Mich. / Brother Rice [Lafayette College]) each with three as well as Williams, Jr. and Kareem Aburashed (West Bloomfield, Mich. / Detroit Country Day [Macomb CC]) with two apiece.  Aburashed was making his third appearance of the season, and first in nearly a month.

WSU's lead stretched to nine twice more at 24-15 and 26-17 before DU utilized a mini 9-2 spurt that cut the margin to two, 28-26, with just under five minutes to go until the intermission.

Briggs put a stop to the Panthers' momentum with two more of his team-high 19 points (tied personal best) thanks to a layup at the 4:14 mark.  Carmelo Harris (Flint, Mich. / Beecher) followed up that deuce with a layup of his own, the home team's final points of the half, and Davenport didn't go away quietly.

The visitors rattled off seven consecutive points to regain the advantage, 33-32, their first since leading 10-8.

Second Half
The initial nine minutes out of the break contained four more ties, while the lead changed hands four times.  The biggest advantage either team boasted in that stretch was five by Davenport, as mentioned above, at 50-45 with 10:23 to go.

Wayne State proceeded to score 22 of the contest's next 28 points in a run that elapsed over eight minutes of game time.  In that span alone, the Warriors went 5-of-12 from the floor, 2-of-3 from behind the arc and 10-of-11 at the charity stripe with five players taking part in the scoring.

Briggs paced those five scorers with seven points as he was joined by Paul lII with six, Tamario Adley (Detroit, Mich. / Warren De La Salle [Macomb CC]) with four, Brantley with three and Williams, Jr. with a pair.

From there until the final buzzer sounded, WSU's lead was never smaller than eight (67-59, 69-61, 75-67) and grew to as large as 11 twice more (73-62, 75-64) before the final margin of nine.

TEAM STATS
Wayne State shot 43.4 percent (23-of-53) to Davenport's 44.1 percent (26-of-59).  Neither team put up the ball particularly well from deep as the Warriors were 5-of-20 (25 percent) and the Panthers converted five of their 23 looks (21.7 percent).  The biggest discrepancy came at the free throw line though were WSU went 25-of-30 (83.3 percent) and DU was just 10-of-21 (47.6 percent).  The home team won the rebounding battle 38-33 with 13 assists to eight turnovers while the visitors notched 12 and eight, respectively.

LEADING THE WARRIORS
Briggs was one of three Warriors to score in double figures with 19 and was joined by Harris (15) and Paul III (11) off the bench.  Paul III was just one board shy of a double-double and Adley assisted on seven field goals, one less than his career high.  Defensively, three players tallied a block (Aburashed, Brantley and Kelvin Tamakloe (Accra, Ghana / Spring Creek Academy [Blinn College])) and two more had a steal (Adley, Brantley).

LEADING THE PANTHERS
Jovan Tucker scored a game-high 22 points, Joey Cabana added 16 and Dylan Smith was responsible for 15.  Matyas Vrabel was Davenport's top rebounder with seven, while Isaiah Foster dished out five dimes.  On the other side of the ball, Vrabel stuffed a pair of shot attempts and Raishaun Brown finished with two steals.

UP NEXT
Wayne State will host Grand Valley State (5-2 overall, 1-0 GLIAC) on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. inside the Fieldhouse.  The Lakers won their league opener 81-68 at Saginaw Valley State on Thursday night.
 
Print Friendly Version