HOUGHTON, Mich. -- The Wayne State University men's basketball program (13-8, 10-7 GLIAC) earned a key GLIAC North Division win, 68-47, at Michigan Tech (13-11, 11-6 GLIAC) on Thursday night.  The wire-to-wire win was WSU's first victory at MTU since Jan. 17, 2013.

The Warriors took an important first step in securing their first trip to the GLIAC Tournament since the 2012-13 season.  Two more wins, including one over Saginaw Valley State on Feb. 23rd in the regular-season finale, during the last four games would do the trick.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• The Warriors sprinted out to a 10-0 lead four minutes into the opening half powered by eight points from Chuck Key (Detroit, Mich. / Cass Tech).  WSU continued to execute offensively and led 16-4 after a Clark Bishop (Detroit, Mich. / Renaissance) jumper at the 13:30 mark.  Ronald Booth (Detroit, Mich. / Consortium) connected from deep with three-minutes left to play to put the visitors up 30-18.  A Bryan Heath triple at the 2:47 mark snapped a four-minute scoring drought for the Huskies.  George Spencer (Detroit, Mich. / Belleville) hit WSU's third three-pointer of the half to give Wayne State a 33-21 advantage with 38 second to play.  At halftime, the Green & Gold led 33-23, propelled by a 52 percent (13-for-25) shooting percentage.

• Wayne State scored the first seven points of the second half to lead 40-23 and held MTU without a field goal until the 15:05 mark of the stanza to make it 45-27 after a Marcus Moore (Lansing, Mich. / Waverly) a trey.  Moore connected from behind the arc once again to add to WSU's lead, making it 52-32 with just under 11 minutes left to play.  Despite going nearly five minutes without scoring, the Warriors led 57-36 at the 10-minute mark.  With 4:33 to play, WSU was up 61-42 after two free throws from Spencer.  Wayne State would coast to a 68-47 victory.

WSU LEADERS
• Key and Booth both led WSU with 18 points, while Spencer tallied 11 and Moore finished with 10 points.

MTU LEADERS
• Kyle Monroe led all scorers with 25 points and had all but one of MTU's second-half field goals.

STINGY DEFENSE
• The 47 points allowed by Wayne State is a season-best and is the lowest offensive output since a  67-43 victory at Northern Michigan on Dec. 15, 2014.  WSU also held the Huskies to a 31.4 shooting percentage.

REBOUNDING EFFORT
• The Warriors out-rebounded the huskies 30-14 on Thursday night.

UP NEXT
• WSU will stay in the Upper Peninsula and compete at Northern Michigan on Saturday afternoon with tip-off scheduled for 1 p.m.  Fans can listed to the action on WDTK (1400 AM / 101.5 FM).