DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (9-9 overall, 5-5 GLIAC) is set to play two more times on Thursday night and Saturday afternoon as part of a three-game week.  The Warriors will be at Purdue Northwest (4-14 overall, 1-9 GLIAC) before taking on Parkside (9-9 overall, 6-4 GLIAC) two days later.

STORYLINES
Halfway through the 2024-25 GLIAC schedule, Wayne State sits at the .500 mark both overall (9-9) and in league play (5-5).  The road doesn't get any easier though as the Warriors will travel to Purdue Northwest and Parkside, two opponents that have gone 16-4 at home against WSU in the all-time series.

At 4-14 overall and 1-9 in conference action, Purdue Northwest snapped a six-game skid last Thursday thanks to its first GLIAC win of the season, 80-59 at Davenport.

Parkside (9-9 overall, 6-4 GLIAC) has won three straight home games against the likes of Roosevelt on Jan. 6 (75-70), No. 4 Ferris State on Jan. 16 (78-66) and No. 6 Lake Superior State two days later (66-63).

THE SERIES
Wayne State has been victorious in 10 of the 15 all-time meetings against Purdue Northwest, but has gone just 1-5 when playing on the Pride's court.  As for Parkside, the Rangers lead the all-time ledger 17-10 including 11-3 in Kenosha.  The Warriors have dropped four straight at PNW and four of the last five at UWP.

SCOUTING THE PRIDE
The 2024-25 campaign has been one to forget for Purdue Northwest.  The Pride enter this week last in the GLIAC standings with just one victory to show for their first 10 league games of the season.  PNW has relied upon a trio of scorers averaging in double figures in Collin Albert (15.9 PPG), Jailen Nelson (13.1 PPG) and Detalian Brown (12.9 PPG).  Dalton Gayman and Will Ashford are right outside the top three with 8.8 and 8.4 PPG, respectively.  Gayman is the conference's top rebounder with 8.0 per contest, while Nelson dishes out 3.4 assists per performance, and has a team-high 24 steals.  Brown has connected on a team-best 34 triples.

SCOUTING THE RANGERS
Parkside has won four of its last five games, two victories of which came against teams ranked among the nation's top six in No. 4 Ferris State and No. 6 Lake Superior State.  Because of that, the Rangers are now part of the three-way tie-for-fourth in the league standings and have put themselves in the discussion for a GLIAC Tournament  home game in the quarterfinal round.  Head coach Luke Reigel (22nd season) and UWP have once again hung their hat on defense as they rank third in the conference and 42nd nationally in points allowed per game (68.3).  Individually, three Rangers are averaging double-figure points per game including Jack Rose (15.6 PPG, tied-for-seventh in GLIAC), Josiah Palmer (14.8 PPG) and Nick Brown (12.8 PPG).  Brown is the team's top rebounder (4.6 RPG), while Palmer leads the league in assists per contest (4.7).  Rose has made a team-best 36 triples, with Palmer recording a team-high 21 steals.

LAST TIME OUT - VS. ROOSEVELT - JAN. 27
The first 10 minutes and change of the contest saw a combined three ties and three lead changes.  In that span, Wayne State's biggest advantage was five (11-6) and Roosevelt's lead was never more than one (12-11, 14-13).

Once it was 14-13 at the 9:06 mark, the Lakers had just started a 10-2 run that put them ahead by seven (22-15) with 7:11 on the clock.  Rob Lee, Jr. and Kelvin Tamakloe then countered with a three-pointer and dunk, respectively, that slimmed the margin back to two, 22-20.

The Lakers rattled off the next eight points, stretching their edge to 10 (30-20) with just under three minutes to go until the break.  Lee, Jr. completed an old fashioned three-point play, Carlos Paull III converted a pair at the free throw line and the deficit shrunk to five, 30-25.

The scoring was 3-2 in favor of the away team for the final minute of action, so Roosevelt's lead was six (33-27) heading into the locker rooms.

Roosevelt's biggest advantage of the night at 13 happened twice in the second half, the first of which was at the 16:17 juncture (41-28).  The Lakers outscored their hosts 8-1 in those first three-plus minutes before leading by 13 again at the 12:07 mark (47-34).

Wayne State punched back with 17 of the next 20 points to regain its first lead since 13-12 at 51-50.  During that 17-3 outburst (8-of-10 FG, 0 turnovers), four Warriors contributed to the scoring column including Lee, Jr. with seven, Jon Brantley with four, Tamario Adley with four, and Paul III with two.

RU's Fred Robinson IV hit a triple back on the other end, but WSU stayed hot with a mini 7-0 spurt, and the good guys' advantage was five (58-53).  Paul III accounted for four of those points, while Adley chipped in three.


Roosevelt knotted things for a fifth instance at 58-58 and Adley cashed a pair of freebies before the affair's sixth and final deadlock came at 60-60 with 2:05 remaining.  However, that came in the midst of the Lakers game-ending 9-3 run.

Wayne State shot 39.7 percent (23-of-58) for the game, including just 13.8 percent (4-of-29) from behind the arc.  Roosevelt countered that with an overall clip of 45.1 percent (23-of-51) and long-range output of 38.1 percent (8-of-21).  The Warriors converted 13-of-18 (72.2 percent) at the free throw line to the Lakers' 13-of-20 (65 percent).  WSU won the rebounding battle 39-32, while churning out 15 assists to eight turnovers.

Paul III turned in the fourth double-double of his career, first as a Warrior, thanks to 13 points and 14 rebounds (personal best).  He was one of three in double-figures along with Lee, Jr. (15) and Adley (14).  Adley nearly racked up more assists than all of Roosevelt combined with five.  Defensively, he and Lee, Jr. each notched a block while four different players registered one steal apiece.

FREE THROW PHENOMS
Wayne State junior Carmelo Harris continues to make free throws with a historic efficiency.  This season, Harris ranks third in the GLIAC and 27th nationally in free throw percentage at 89.3 percent (50-of-56).  Career wise, the Flint native is shooting 88.5 percent (162-of-183), which is first in program history (minimum 70 made) and eighth among all active Division II players.  When factoring in all current NCAA basketball players from Divisions I, II and III, Harris' career clip is good for 30th.  Not to be forgotten though is his high school teammate Rob Lee, Jr., who is fourth in the league for free throw percentage at 87.7 percent (57-of-65).

"THE MAESTRO"
Redshirt senior Ray Williams, Jr. continues to ascend the program's career record book top 50 in several categories.  Entering this week, Williams is second in minutes played (3,381), second in games started (104), fourth in games played (113), seventh in total rebounds (671, 20th among active players in D2), tied-for-23rd in three-pointers made (79), tied for-31st in field goals made (348), tied-for-31st in steals (81), 36th in points scored (891), and tied for-43rd in blocked shots (26).  The Detroit native is one of four players in program history to start at least 100 games along with Raheem Muhammad (111, 1982-86), Tony Goins (102, 1995-99) and Marcus Moore (100, 2014-18).  Williams needs to see time in just eight more games to become Wayne State's all-time leader in games played.  Scott Armstrong is currently first with 120 games played (1990-94).

AT THE CHARITY STRIPE
Junior guard Tamario Adley attempted 19 foul shots in the Jan. 23 win over Saginaw Valley State.  It was the fifth most attempts in program history and the most since Ike Udanoh had 20 free throw attempts on January 14, 2012, vs. Findlay.  The most attempts in the last 65 years is 24 by Art Johnson on January 11, 1992, vs. Lake Superior State.