STORYLINES
The surging Warriors have won six of their last seven games and are now in first place in the GLIAC standings.  WSU returns home for the final four games of the regular season.  That home stand begins this weekend against Saginaw Valley State on Friday night at 6:00 PM and Saturday at 2:00 PM.

THE SERIES
Wayne State trails 36-42 in the all-time series against Saginaw Valley State, including a 20-17 mark at home.  Head coach David Greer is 14-16 (8-6 at home) in his 20 seasons at WSU vs. SVSU.  The Cardinals have won five in a row and nine of the last 11 meetings.  The last Warrior wins were inside the Matthaei on Jan. 11, 2018, and Feb. 23, 2017, when the Green & Gold won back-to-back home games.  SVSU won the two contests last season, 71-57 and 74-68, respectively.

SCOUTING THE CARDINALS 
SVSU is 3-9 overall after a 72-70 win at Northwood on Tuesday after seeing its two home games versus Ferris State postponed.  The Cardinals have not played at home since Jan. 26.  Head coach Randy Baruth is in his ninth season leading the program.  Senior guard Delano Smith leads the team in scoring at 15.6 points per game and rebounding at 6.5 boards per night.  Junior guard Myles Belyeu is scoring 14.0 points per contest, while senior guard Darnell Hoskins, Jr. is just under 10.0 points per game with a 9.8 points per game average.  As a team, SVSU is putting up 63.8 points per game and allowing 69.2 points per night.  The Cardinals are shooting 40.2 percent from the floor, 28.7 percent from three-point range and 68.3 percent at the free throw line.

LAST TIME OUT 
In its final road game of the regular season on Tuesday, Wayne State won 64-60 at Ashland to complete the season sweep of the Eagles.  WSU ended the game on a 12-0 run, holding the Eagles scoreless for the final 3:05.  The game was very similar to the home contest versus AU, where the Warriors held the Eagles scoreless for the final 4:29 as WSU tallied the final 13 points.  Darian Owens-White scored 13 second-half points to finish with a team-best 16 points powered by four three-pointers to go with his five rebounds.  Brailen Neely posted a 13-point performance and dished out five assists.  Avery Lewis chipped in with 11 points and a team-high eight boards.

CLEANING THE GLASS
The Warriors have excelled rebounding the basketball so far this season.  WSU ranks second in the league in both total rebounds per game (36.4) and rebounding margin per game (+2.7).  In addition, Wayne State has won the rebounding battle in nine of the 13 games.  

SUCCESS AT THE LINE
The Warriors went 25-of-26 (.962) against Davenport on January 16th from the charity stripe.  That percentage is the second-best single-game performance at the free throw line with at least 15 made over the last 20 seasons.  WSU finished 20-of-22 (.909) at the line on February 6th vs. Purdue Northwest.

In addition, Darian Owens-White has made 49 straight free throws, which is a program record.  He is shooting .954 at the free throw line, which is the best mark in the conference and would be a program record.  The next best mark for a season is a .904 mark by Bryan Smothers in 2009-10.

REGIONAL RANKINGS
Due to the unique and unbalanced schedules around the country, the NCAA regional rankings will work differently this season.  Wayne State was among eight teams listed as "under consideration" vying for six NCAA Tournament bids in the Midwest Region.  The others squads alphabetically were Ashland, Grand Valley State, UMSL, Parkside, Southern Indiana, Southwest Baptist and Truman State.

SPREADING IT AROUND
In the win over Davenport on January 16th, all five starters scored in double figures.  It was the first time that has happened since December 7, 2019.  The Warriors accomplished the feat again on February 6th against the Pride.

GLIAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK X2
Junior Darian Owens-White was named GLIAC South Division Player of the Week on January 19th.  It was the first weekly honor of his career.

In just his third and fourth games back after a 22-month hiatus due to an injury, redshirt junior Darian Owens-White found his scoring touch.

Owens-White tallied 55 points in the two home court victories over Davenport.  For the week, he was 15-of-32 (47 percent) from the floor, including 9-of-14 (64 percent) from beyond the arc.  Owens-White was a stellar 16-of-17 (94 percent) from the charity stripe, while adding nine rebounds, six assists and four steals.
  
Owens-White was selected GLIAC South Division Player of the Week on February 8th after helping the Warriors to a home sweep of Purdue Northwest.

In the sweep of the Pride, Owens-White totaled 46 points on 15-of-38 shooting, including 4-of-8 from three-point range.  He was 12-of-12 from the charity stripe, while contributing 14 rebounds, four assists and four steals. 

MATTHAEI MOMENTUM
Wayne State is 5-0 this season inside the Matthaei, which is double the amount of home court wins from last season.  Below are home records for the last six campaigns, prior to this year:

2019-20:  2-9
2018-19:  6-7
2017-18:  10-5
2016-17:  9-3
2015-16:  4-9
2014-15:  4-8

BENCH SCORING
It was a welcome sight to see WSU's bench carrying the weight in the season-opening win with 28 points, which is 10 more than the Warriors received in any game last year from non-starters.  

The Green & Gold followed that with 17 points off the bench during the January 16th contest vs. the Panthers.

The bench contributed 18 points in the January 22nd three-point setback at Northwood.

On average, the Warriors are getting 10.8 points per game from their bench this season compared to 5.5 points per contest during the 2019-20 season.

NCAA STAT RANKINGS
The Warriors rank in the top 50 in several statistical categories.  WSU is 27th in free throw percentage (.768), scoring defense (67.5) and fewest turnovers per game (11.3), 45th in both winning percentage (.692) and opponents field goal percentage (.427), 47th in defensive rebounds per game (27.2), 

Darian Owens-White ranks fifth nationally in free throw percentage (.954), 25th in total field goal attempts (208), 28th in minutes per game (36:20) and 32nd in free throws made (62).  Brailen Neely ranks 17th in minutes per game (36:57), 19th in steals (30) and 21st in steals per game (2.31).

WARRIOR ALL-ACCESS
Every home game can be viewed live on Warrior All-Access for free this season.  Simply log on to WSUAthletics.com and click the video camera icon at the bottom of the home page to see the streaming schedule or watch past games.  In addition, that video camera icon can be found on the schedule page next to each game.

LIVE ON WDTK
Kevin Brechmacher will call every contest live on WDTK - The Patriot (1400 AM / 101.5 FM).  Fans can also stream the action online at PatriotDetroit.com.