DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (11-11, 7-7) will begin a four-game road trip this week, its longest of the season.  The Warriors will be at Saginaw Valley State (9-13, 5-9) on Thursday night and Roosevelt (6-16, 3-11) the following Monday evening.

STORYLINES
Wayne State (11-11, 7-7) split a pair of home games last week, defeating 30th-ranked Michigan Tech 74-62 before falling 66-61 to Northern Michigan.  The Warriors will now embark on a four-game road trip, their longest of the season, and it begins this week at Saginaw Valley State on Thursday and Roosevelt the following Monday.

Saginaw Valley State (9-13, 5-9) has been much better at home as opposed to on the road.  Six of the Cardinals nine wins have come on their court (6-5) compared to a 3-8 mark away from home.

Roosevelt (6-16, 3-11), 4-6 at home this season, has dropped four outings in a row since defeating Wayne State 67-63 in Detroit on Jan. 27.

THE SERIES
Saginaw Valley State leads the all-time series with Wayne State by six, 47-41.  The Cardinals have taken 10 of the last 15 meetings and seven of the previous eight in University Center.  The one instance in which Wayne State won on the road in that eight-game stretch was last season and it sent the Warriors to the GLIAC Tournament.  WSU has a 15-26 record at James E. O'Neill Arena.

Wayne State and Roosevelt have met just once in the all-time series, Jan. 27 in the WSU Fieldhouse when the Lakers came out on top by a score of 67-63.

SCOUTING THE CARDINALS
This season, Saginaw Valley State's head coach Randy Baruth has relied on a pair of familiar names in senior guard Freddie McIntosh (16.0 PPG) and redshirt-senior guard Toodles Seal (15.9 PPG), arguably the GLIAC's most potent back court.  The team's most reliable rebounders have been junior forwards Elijah Mattingly and Richmond Mawutor, both of which are bringing down six boards per game. Junior guard Bryson Huckeby paces the squad in assists (1.5 per game), while Seal is on top  with 24 steals.  The Cardinals love to hoist it from deep as they are 38th in the country in three-pointers attempted per game (26.5) and 78th in triples made per contest (8.7).  Individually, McIntosh is 27th for both triples attempted (177) and treys made per outing (3.0) as well as 31st in total three-pointers cashed (66).

SCOUTING THE LAKERS
Head coach Dee Brown boasts one of the GLIAC's top scorers in Forte Prater (17.7 PPG, second in the league).  Prater is one of two Lakers averaging double figures along with Enari Thomas (16.7 PPG, fourth in the league). Griffin Yaklich brings down 6.5 rebounds per game and Kennedy Brown is right behind him at 6.2. Prater is also tied-for-third in the league for assists with 3.5 per contest and leads RU in steals (30) and triples (32).

LAST TIME OUT - VS. NORTHERN MICHIGAN - FEB. 8
Northern Michigan scored 22 of the game's first 29 points over the course of a span that lasted nearly 14 and a half minutes.  During that stretch, Wayne State went 3-of-12 from the field and 0-of-2 from behind the arc with eight turnovers, while the visitors converted nine of their 21 looks from the floor.

The home team responded with 10 of the next 12 points and cut the deficit to seven, 24-17.  Six of those 10 points came from Rob Lee, Jr., while his high school teammate Carmelo Harris accounted for the other four.  From that point until the final buzzer of the first half, NMU outscored WSU 7-3 to lead by 11 (31-20) at intermission.

After a Northern Michigan two-pointer 48 seconds out of the break by Gerald Gittens, the margin was back to 13 at 33-20.  Then, Carlos Paul III sank a pair of free throws and Ray Williams, Jr. pulled away for a fast-break dunk slimming the Wildcats' advantage to single-digits, 33-24.  NMU proceeded to rattle off 11 of the ensuing 15 points and charged out to its biggest lead of the game (16 points) at 44-28.

WSU didn't go away quietly though as it used a 16-4 outburst that slimmed the difference to four (48-44) with 8:31 remaining.  Four Warriors contributed to the spurt including Paul III with six, Tamario Adley with four, Jordan Briggs with three, and Lee, Jr. with two.

Following six consecutive Northern Michigan points, the edge ballooned to 10 again (54-44) at the 6:14 juncture.  After that, Wayne State was unable to get any closer than five points (64-59, 66-61) and the Wildcats lead was as large as 11 (59-48).

Wayne State shot 44.7 percent (21-of-47) to Northern Michigan's 41.4 percent (24-of-58).  The Warriors went 3-of-14 (21.4 percent) from long range to the Wildcats 5-of-16 (31.3 percent).  WSU garnered just seven assists to 14 turnovers, while NMU accounted for 10 dimes and four giveaways.  Northern Michigan turned those Wayne State giveaways into 15 points (15-8 advantage).  The Wildcats also had the upper hand in paint scoring (38-30), while the Warriors bench was better (20-12).

FREE THROW PHENOMS
Wayne State junior Carmelo Harris continues to make free throws with a historic efficiency.  This season, Harris ranks second in the GLIAC and 38th nationally in free throw percentage at 87.3 percent (55-of-63).  Career wise, the Flint native is shooting 87.9 percent (167-of-190), which is first in program history (minimum 70 made) and ninth 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 37th.  Not to be forgotten though is his high school teammate Rob Lee, Jr., who is fifth in the league for free throw percentage at 81.4 percent (70-of-86).

"THE MAESTRO"
Redshirt senior Ray Williams, Jr. continues to ascend the program's career record book top 50 in several categories.  Thanks to 38 minutes on the court against Michigan Tech on Feb. 5, Williams became the school's all-time leader in that category, a total that now stands at 3,511 minutes played.  Entering this week, Williams is second in both games started (108) and games played (117), sixth in total rebounds (698, 20th among active players in D2), tied-for-23rd in three-pointers made (79), 31st in field goals made (355), tied-for-28th in steals (84), 36th in points scored (908), tied for-40th in blocked shots (28), and 48th in rebounds per game (6.0).  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 start just four more games to become Wayne State's all-time leader in games played and started.  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.  In Wayne State's Jan. 30 victory at Purdue Northwest, Adley was a perfect 12-of-12 at the charity stripe.  That night he became the first Wayne State men's basketball player in at least 23 years to shoot 100 percent from the foul line with more than 10 makes.