STORYLINES
The first-place Warriors have won eight of their last nine games and have their sights set on a regular-season title and a first round bye in next week's GLIAC Tournament.  WSU closes out the regular season inside the Matthaei against Ferris State.  The series begins on Friday night at 6:00 PM and concludes on Saturday with a 2:00 PM tip-off.

THE SERIES
Wayne State trails 40-49 in the all-time series against Ferris State, but have a winning record at home, 23-18.  Head coach David Greer is 13-16 (8-4 at home) vs. FSU. The Bulldogs have won nine of the last 10 contests.  The last Warrior win was inside the Matthaei on Nov. 29, 2018, when the Green & Gold won 90-89 to begin the GLIAC schedule.  

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS 
Ferris State is 8-9 overall and 7-7 in the GLIAC.  The Bulldogs are in a four-way tie for sixth in the league standings after splitting at home versus Purdue Northwest and dropping a mid-week game at Lake Superior State.  Head coach Andy Bronkema is in his sixth season leading the program.  Senior guard Walt Kelser is tied for the league lead in points per game at 21.3.  The other FSU player to keep an eye on when the Bulldogs have the ball is senior forward Michael Peterson, who is averaging 9.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.  As a team, Ferris State is putting up 67.3 points per game and allowing 70.0 points per night.  The Bulldogs are shooting 42.1 percent from the floor, 29.6 percent from three-point range and 73.8 percent at the free throw line.

SVSU RECAP
Wayne State controlled almost every minute of the 80 minutes of game action against Saginaw Valley State this past weekend.  The Warriors won 80-65 on Friday night behind 23 points from Brailen Neely to go with nine assists and four steals.  He participated in over half of WSU's offense when you account for field goals and assists.  Avery Lewis collected his third double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds to go with six assists, while Ray Williams, Jr. tallied 16 points and eight boards.  Darian Owens-White finished with 11 points.  WSU cruised past the Cardinals on Saturday, 86-67.  Three Warriors finished with 20 or more points led by Owens-White with 26.  Lewis finished with a career-best 23 points and seven rebounds.  Neely went 7-of-8 from the floor on his way to 21 points.  

It was the first time since Jan. 10, 2005, that WSU State had three 20-point scorers.  In a 107-63 win over Marygrove, Herb Goliday and Morris Hall had 26 points each, and Tariq Mills had 20 points and 15 rebounds.

CLEANING THE GLASS
The Warriors have excelled rebounding the basketball so far this season.  WSU leads the league in both total rebounds per game (36.9) and rebounding margin per game (+4.0).  In addition, Wayne State has won the rebounding battle in 11 of the 15 games.  

On Saturday vs. SVSU, the Warriors out-rebounded the Cardinals 43-24 (+19).  That is the largest rebounding margin of the season.

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 58 straight free throws, which is a program record.  He is shooting .959 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 by Bryan Smothers in 2009-10 at .904 (85-of-94).

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" on February 17th 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.  The next regional rankings will be released on February 24th.

RAY'S SPARK
Freshman Ray Williams, Jr. has started the last eight games, the first starts of his collegiate career.  Over that time Wayne State is 7-1 and Williams is averaging 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.

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

GLIAC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Junior Darian Owens-White was named GLIAC South Division Player of the Week on January 19th and February 8th.  

Senior Brailen Neely collected the award on Monday (February 22nd) after he helped Wayne State go 3-0 with a win at Ashland plus a sweep of Saginaw Valley State.  He totaled 57 points (19.0 PPG), 18 assists (6.0 APG) and 17 rebounds (5.7 RPG) in the three victories. Neely shot 59 percent from the floor on 20-of-34, 46 percent from behind the arc (5-of-11) and did not miss a free throw in 12 attempts.  He had a pair of 20-point performances, including 23 points in the Friday win over SVSU.  On Saturday, Neely went 7-for-8 from the floor to finish with 21 points.  

MATTHAEI MOMENTUM
Wayne State is 7-0 this season inside the Matthaei, which is +5 in 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 10.5 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 19th in free throw percentage (.779), 25th in scoring defense (67.3), 31st in fewest turnovers per game (11.5), 40th in winning percentage (.733), 43rd in opponents field goal percentage (.426), 44th in rebounding margin per game (+4.0), 45th in free throws made (225),  47th in both scoring margin (+6.0) and defensive rebounds per game (27.2) and 50th in assist/turnover ratio (1.19).

Darian Owens-White ranks sixth nationally in free throw percentage (.959), 18th in total field goal attempts (239), 26th in free throws made (71), 29th in minutes per game (36:27) and 47th in total points (280).  Brailen Neely ranks 16th in both minutes per game (37:13) and steals (35), 17th in steals per game (2.33) and 38th in total assists (70).

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.