DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball squad (6-14 overall, 6-11 GLIAC) won for the third time in the last four outings registering a 55-51 home court victory over Ohio Dominican University (8-15 overall, 5-12 GLIAC) Saturday afternoon at the Matthaei.

HOW IT HAPPENED
In a back-and-forth first half that saw seven lead changes, the Warriors led 25-21 at intermission.

Sophomore forward Chuck Key (Detroit, Mich. / Cass Tech) led WSU at the break with eight points and five rebounds off the bench, while junior forward Michael Lewis (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Huron) chipped in with five points and a team-best seven rebounds.

The teams traded buckets in the early going of the second half with Wayne State leading from three to seven points for nearly the first 10 minutes, until a triple by ODU's Ronnie Williams cut the Warrior advantage to two (37-35).

A conventional three-point play by Lewis with 5:18 remaining increased the WSU lead to seven (46-39).

Another three pointer by Williams pulled the visiting Panthers within three (49-46) with 2:36 left.  Just before Williams' try, sophomore swingman George Spencer (Detroit, Mich. / Belleville) drained a step-back fade away jumper from just inside the three-point line as the shot clock was expiring.

Sophomore guard Marcus Moore (Lansing, Mich. / Waverly) answered with an old-fashioned three-point play pushing the margin back to six with 2:16 remaining.

After Panther Mike DeLeon made both ends of a one-and-one with 2:02 left and a missed lay-up by the Warriors, Williams connected for his third triple of the contest to make it a one-point game (52-51) with 1:32 left.

Following another missed field goal attempt by WSU, Moore notched his third steal of the match.  An offensive foul on Wayne State with 18.0 seconds gave Ohio Dominican life, but Moore recorded his game-high fourth theft with five seconds remaining.  Moore made his second free throw in a double bonus situation, and after a 30-second timeout by the Panthers, their long in-bounds pass went over everyone and out-of-bounds at the far base line.

Sophomore guard Ronald Booth (Detroit, Mich. / Consortium) was fouled on the in-bounds and sank both of his foul shots to complete the scoring.

The Warrior defense allowed just one made field goal in the final 2:30 to preserve the lead.

LEADING THE WARRIORS

Lewis totaled a game-best 18 points, while Spencer added 10 points.  Key nearly had a double-double with eight points and a team-high eight rebounds.

TEAM STATS RECAP

The game was nearly even in every statistical category as WSU made 21 field goals (in 56 attempts / 38 percent) to ODU's 20 made field goals (in 52 attempts / 39 percent).  The Warriors were 4-of-8 from three-point range with Lewis connected on all three of his triple tries.  The Panthers shot 19 percent (3-of-16) from behind the arc.  Wayne State converted 60 percent (9-of-15) of its free throw chances, compared to 73 percent (8-of-11) for Ohio Dominican.

ODU lead 32-26 in points in the paint, while WSU had a 17-13 edge in points off turnovers.  Both squads committed 16 miscues and had two blocked shots.

LEADING THE OPPOSITION

Trent Weaver compiled a double-double with a team-best 14 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.  DeLeon contributed 10 points and nine rebounds, while Williams totaled 11 points.

UP NEXT

The Warriors will start another three-game road trip at Lake Erie on Thursday.  It will be WSU's second three-game road swing in a seven-game span.

COMCAST REPLAY

This contest will be aired twice on replay by Comcast/CN 900 -- Feb. 7th at noon and Feb. 12th also at noon.