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Wayne State University Athletics

Rob Lee, Jr.
(C) Douglas Johnson
Rob Lee, Jr. supplied 10 points and four rebounds on Saturday at PNW.
52
Wayne St. (MI) Wayne 8-12,2-9 GLIAC
72
Winner Purdue Northwest Pur-NW 11-10,5-6 GLIAC
Wayne St. (MI) Wayne
8-12,2-9 GLIAC
52
Final
72
Purdue Northwest Pur-NW
11-10,5-6 GLIAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Wayne St. (MI) Wayne 28 24 52
Purdue Northwest Pur-NW 27 45 72

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Matthew Jurek, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Men's Basketball Suffers 72-52 Setback at Purdue Northwest

Six Warriors tallied at least six points on Saturday.

HAMMOND, Ind. -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (8-12 overall, 2-9 GLIAC) dropped a 72-52 decision at Purdue Northwest (11-10 overall, 5-6 GLIAC) on Saturday afternoon.  The Pride outscored the Warriors 45-24 in the second half after WSU had secured a one-point advantage (28-27) following 20 minutes.

FIRST HALF
Neither team scored for nearly two minutes until a jumper from sophomore guard Tamario Adley (Detroit, Mich. / Warren De La Salle (Macomb C.C.)) opened the scoring.  After a lay-up by PNW's Brendan Temple tied the score at 2-2, WSU tallied eight of the next 10 points to jump ahead 10-4 with 14:57 remaining.  A Matt Coffey (Detroit, Mich, / Martin Luther King) bucket made the lead 12-7 with 12:42 left, before Purdue Northwest notched five points on a lay-up from Obi Ezekwesili and an old-fashioned three-point play by Temple to knot the score at 12-12 just before the midway point of the stanza.

The remainder of the period was close, with three more tied scores (16-16, 20-20, and 25-25) prior to the final horn for the first 20 minutes.  WSU re-gained a five-point edge between the 3:58 and 3:21 marks following a triple by freshman guard Rob Lee, Jr. (Flint, Mich. / Beecher) and two foul shots from Coffey, but the Pride responded with seven points in 1:43 to surge ahead 27-25 with 89 seconds to play.

From there to the end of the first half, a three-pointer by Adley with 55 seconds remaining were the only points on the scoreboard.  That triple gave the Green and Gold a one-point lead (28-27) at intermission.  

SECOND HALF
The lead exchanged hands three times in the span of 34 seconds to begin the new half.  A lay-up by Jules Bikoy was answered by the same made shot from Adley.  Kalil Whitehead's jump shot put Purdue Northwest in front 31-30 and in the lead for the rest of the contest.  The Whitehead made basket served as the first two points of a 17-0 run by the Pride between 19:01 and 14:27, which saw PNW claim a commanding 16-point edge (46-30).

A jumper from freshman guard Jordan Briggs (Muskegon, Mich.) with 13:11 left ended Wayne State's scoreless drought of over six minutes.  The Warriors managed five more points in quick succession on a jumper from Lee, Jr. and a three-pointer by freshman forward Hutch Ward (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Central), which closed the deficit to 11 (48-37) with 11:43 to play.  However, that would be as close as the visitors would come to erasing the hosts' lead.

PNW out-paced WSU 21-15 over the last 10 minutes of the second half to emerge with the 20-point triumph.  Of the Green and Gold's 15 points in the final stretch, Lee, Jr. scored five and sophomore guard Carmelo Harris (Flint, Mich. / Beecher) four via a quartet of free throws. 

TEAM STATS
The Pride's 54 percent shooting (18-of-33) in the second half helped them finish at 46 percent (29-of-63) from the floor during the contest.  The Warriors made 17-of-52 (33 percent) for the game after making just six of their 24 attempts from the field - a key reason for the second half story.  PNW converted on 7 of its 26 three-pointers (27 percent), while WSU nailed just three on 22 tries (13 percent) from beyond the arc.  Wayne State went to the foul line 17 times and sank 15 free throws (88 percent).  Purdue Northwest had only seven attempts from the charity stripe and made all of them.  The Pride out-rebounded the Warriors 39-30 and also had more assists (13-4), steals (7-5) and bench points (31-21).

LEADING THE WARRIORS
Lee, Jr. was the lone Warrior in double-figures with 10 points, but five other Warriors tallied at least six points.  Adley grabbed a team-best six rebounds, while Briggs paced the squad with a pair of steals.

LEADING THE PRIDE
Whitehead led all scorers with 13 points, with CJ Jackson (12) and Dalton Gayman (11) trailing close behind.  Temple nearly had a double-double with nine points and a game-best nine boards, while also dishing out five assists to lead all players.  Whitehead had a game-high three steals and one of two blocked shots in the contest.  Anthony Irvin notched the other block.

UP NEXT
Wayne State will head back home for a pair of contests, beginning with a visit by Grand Valley State on Thursday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m. following the women's game against the Lakers.  The Warriors are 6-4 inside Wayne State Fieldhouse in 2023-24.

 
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