GAME STORYLINES
The Wayne State University men's basketball team (11-11 overall, 8-8 GLIAC) will look to rebound from a pair of home losses to ranked opponents in No. 17 Northern Michigan (82-62) and 13th-ranked Michigan Tech (77-73). The Warriors will hit the road for the final time in the regular season as they look to sweep the season series over both Roosevelt and Parkside.
Roosevelt has lost two straight games, but won two in a row right before that for the first time all season. Both of those victories were on the Lakers' court, which is where they will get to play this week starting with the contest against WSU on Thursday.
Nine of Parkside's 11 wins have come at home where the Rangers own a 9-5 record. Wayne State will have a 4 p.m. (Eastern time) tip in Kenosha, Wis. on Saturday.
SERIES HISTORY
Wayne State and Roosevelt have met just three times in the all-time series. The Lakers won both meetings last season, 67-63, in Detroit on Jan. 27, and 90-83 in Chicago on Feb. 17. This season, the Warriors were victorious for the first time on Jan. 17, 78-67, in Detroit.
Parkside leads the all-time series, 18-11, and has won five of the last seven against Wayne State. The Warriors have taken the last two in Detroit, but dropped four straight when playing in Kenosha where they are 3-12 all-time.
SCOUTING ROOSEVELT
Roosevelt, coached by fourth-year man Dee Brown (56-54 overall record), is last in the GLIAC for both scoring offense (67.1 PPG) and scoring defense (80.1 PPG).
Individually, three Lakers who are playing regularly are averaging double-digit points per game -- junior Hamahrie Bowers (15.5), senior Mikey West (14.1) and senior Dante Sawyer (12.8). Junior Davon Smith-Johnson (9.9) and senior Kaleim Taylor (9.1) are right outside that leading trio.
Sawyer and Smith-Johnson are the only two on the team to have played in all 23 games. Smith-Johnson is the team's lone player with 23 starts and leads the squad in rebounding (111 boards) and blocks (20). Sawyer has a team-high 26 steals and West is on top of the assist department with 56.
SCOUTING PARKSIDE
Under 23rd-year head coach Luke Reigel (335-309 overall record), Parkside is one of the best free throw shooting teams in the country. Not only do the Rangers get to the charity stripe often, they convert at a high efficiency. Nationally, UWP is 19th in free throws made per game (18.2), 32nd in free throw percentage (75.8) and 36th in free throws attempted per contest (24.0).
Parkside boasts three of the top 13 scorers in the conference when it comes to points per game. That trio includes senior Paxton Warden (18.7 PPG, fourth in the GLIAC), redshirt junior Luka Mateski (16.0, eighth) and graduate student Josiah Palmer (12.8, 13th). Senior Fawaz Surakat brings down 7.3 rebounds per contest, good for a tie-for-fourth in the league, while Palmer's 3.2 assists per outing rank tied-for-fourth.
LAST GAME RECAP
Michigan Tech scored the game's first six points and 11 of its initial 14 in a stretch that lasted nearly eight minutes of game time.
From there until the end of the first half, the back-and-forth was much more balanced, but still favored the Huskies by two (23-21). That meant MTU carried a seven-point advantage into halftime, 31-24.
Out of the break, Michigan Tech scored 12 points to Wayne State's six for its biggest advantage of the day at 13, 43-30.
The Warriors countered with a 14-7 spurt of their own that slimmed the deficit to five, 49-44. In that span alone,
Devin Belle accounted for six points while
Carlos Paul III added four and
Jalen Jenkins tacked on two.
WSU would pull within five three more times (51-46, 53-48, 55-50) before finally breaking through at the 8:33 mark. Paul III converted a layup and a three-pointer on back-to-back possessions, and the hosts were within one, 58-57.
Wayne State managed to tie the score on three separate occasions (63-63, 66-66 and 68-68), but was never able to take the lead. Following that final deadlock, Michigan Tech outscored the home team 9-5 and went 7-of-8 at the free throw line, while the Warriors were 1-of-5 from the floor and 2-of-10 at the charity stripe.
Carlos Paul III led four Warriors in double figures with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting and 3-of-5 free throws. He was joined in the double-digit scoring department by
JaKobie Boose (13),
Devin Belle (13) and
Marshall Thorn (season-high 12). Thorn garnered his 13th career double-double, but first at Wayne State, thanks to a game-high 11 rebounds. Lastly on offense,
Jalen Jenkins dished out four of WSU's 10 assists. Defensively, Jenkins also notched three steals, while three different Warriors blocked one shot attempt apiece.
IRON SHARPENS IRON
Wayne State's current strength of schedule is good for 17th (268-186, .590 winning percentage) in the country. The Warriors' remaining slate is favorable with a .424 winning percentage (39-53). WSU's composite ranking is No. 43 out of 295 schools with an overall record of 307-239, good for a .562 winning percentage.
GLIAC STANDINGS
With four games to play in the regular season, Wayne State enters this week tied-for-fourth in the GLIAC standings. Those final four contests will be against Roosevelt (last place), Parkside (tied-for-ninth), Lake Superior State (tied-for-fourth), and Saginaw Valley State (tied-for-ninth). The top four teams in the final standings will host a GLIAC Tournament quarterfinal date before the highest remaining seed following those four contests hosts the semifinals and finals.
WARRIOR SPORTS NETWORK
Kevin Brechmacher will have the call for both road games this weekend in Chicago and Kenosha, Wis.
