HAMMOND, Ind. – The Purdue Northwest men's basketball team will host Lake Superior State on Friday and Saturday inside the PNW Fitness & Recreation Center. The pair of league games will be the Pride's first competition on their home floor in over 10 months.

Tipoff Friday is scheduled for 3 p.m. CST and Saturday's contest is slated for a 1 p.m. CST start against the Lakers. No fans are allowed, but live video and stats are available for both games. WJOB's Sam Michel is back for another season of calling hoops action as the play-by-play voice of the Pride. PNW is excited to announce that Michel will be joined by ESPN's Brooke Weisbrod as the color analyst this season.




PURDUE NORTHWEST STORYLINES

• PNW enters the second weekend of GLIAC play tied among all six teams in the North Division with a 1-1 record.
• PNW dropped the season opener at Michigan Tech 68-59 last Saturday and bounced back with an impressive 76-52 win over the Huskies on Sunday.
• Sunday's 24-point victory was the program's first win against Michigan Tech and marked PNW's largest margin of victory in a GLIAC road game.
• PNW is 3-1 in its previous four league games dating back to last season, which included an 86-71 home win over this weekend's opponent Lake Superior State. In those three wins, the Pride are averaging 87 points per game and outscored opponents by an average margin of 24.
• PNW is looking to start the season with a 2-1 record for the first time in the program's NCAA era. The Pride started each of the previous two campaigns 2-2 through the first four games.
• The Pride rank fourth nationally in field-goal percentage defense (35.4%) and ninth in scoring defense (60.0) heading into this weekend's games.
• PNW shot 85 percent at the free-throw line the last time out, going 17 of 20 after hitting 15 consecutive attempts at the charity stripe. The Pride had five games last season with a free-throw percentage at 80 percent or above.
• The Pride dominated the glass last week, outrebounding Michigan Tech by a combined 84-66 margin in two games while grabbing 26 total boards on the offensive end.
• PNW ranks 16th nationally in total rebounds per game (42) and leads the GLIAC and sits 21st nationally in offensive boards per contest (13).
• Sophomore forward Vincent Miszkiewicz is averaging a double-double with 14.0 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals per game. He leads the GLIAC in rebounds per game and ranks fourth nationally in the same category.
• Miszkiewicz has recorded four double-doubles in five games this season (including the three preseason exhibition contests against Division I opponents). He posted 20 points and 10 boards at Bowling Green (Dec. 3) and 17 points and 16 rebounds at Valpo (Dec. 17).
• Anthony Barnard (14.5 ppg) tied his career high with 23 points in the win at Michigan Tech. The junior from Kokomo, Indiana finished 8 of 12 (67%) from the field and 2 of 2 from three-point range, while scoring 17 points in the second half. Barnard also grabbed five of his six rebounds on the offensive glass.
• Junior point guard Mikell Cooper is averaging 12.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and team-high 3.5 assists per game after making his Pride debut last week. He leads the team with four made three-pointers.
• Seven PNW players made their regular-season debut in a Pride uniform last week, including Miszkiewicz, Cooper, Anthony Irvin, Logan Phillips, Caleb Zurliene, Joan Giner and Jacob Stone.
• PNW is 1-1 in home openers under head coach Boomer Roberts.

CLOSER LOOK AT LAKE SUPERIOR STATE

• Lake Superior State went 1-1 at home against Wayne State last week, dropping the opener 87-76 on Friday, and claiming Game 2 by a final score of 75-64 on Saturday.
• Junior transfer Kemon Bassett earned GLIAC North Player of the Week after averaging 21.5 points in the two games against the Warriors. Bassett notched a double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds in the win on Saturday.
• The Lakers are led by their all-time winningest coach, Steve Hettinga, who enters his 14th season with an overall record of 231-149 with the school.
• Lake Superior State was picked to finish third in the GLIAC North Division preseason poll after posting a 12-16 (9-11 GLIAC) record in 2019-20.
• Senior Malek Adams, who missed all of last season, was named to the preseason All-GLIAC men's basketball team after earning first-team all-league honors as a junior in 2018-19.

SERIES HISTORY

• Lake Superior State leads the all-time series, 5-1.
• PNW captured its first victory in the series when it won the most recent meeting by a final score of 86-71 (Feb. 22, 2020) in Hammond. It was the first meeting on John Friend Court as the previous two PNW home games against Lake Superior State were hosted at the Westville campus.
• Jyrus Freels scored 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting in last year's victory over the Lakers. He also grabbed four boards with three assists and two steals.
• LSSU's Nigel Colvin scored a game-high 20 points the last time these two teams met. Colvin shot 4 for 11 from three-point range and 6 for 17 overall from the field.

COACHES SHOW WITH COACH ROBERTS & ANTHONY BARNARD



NEXT UP
PNW will travel to Davenport for a two-game series in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Friday, Jan. 22 (4 p.m. CST) and Saturday, Jan. 23 (noon CST). The Pride's next home game will be Tuesday, Jan. 26 against Parkside for a 7 p.m. CST tipoff.