Complete Notes
Upcoming in Gray Wolves Basketball: The longest road trip of the season, a four-game excursion, comes to an end this week for Lourdes.  The Gray Wolves looks for its first Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference wins of the season, traveling to Indiana Tech on Wednesday evening before heading to Madonna for a Saturday matinee.

Head Coach Dennis Hopson: In his second season on the Lourdes bench, Dennis Hopson is 32-18 (.640) with the Gray Wolves and as a men's collegiate head coach.  He is only the third head coach in Lourdes program's history.

Series Notes: Indiana Tech holds a 14-9 series advantage against Lourdes dating back to Oct. 30, 2010.   The two schools split last season's meetings, each defending its own home floor.  The Gray Wolves scored a 95-66 win in the Ebeid Rec Center while the Warriors earned an 81-80 buzzer-beating victory in Fort Wayne, Ind.  Indiana Tech holds an 8-4 edge all-time in Fort Wayne.  Madonna leads the all-time series against Lourdes 14-9 dating back to Nov. 6, 2010.  The Crusaders won last year's lone meeting between the two schools, 92-73, in Livonia, Mich. in the quarterfinals of the WHAC tournament.  Madonna and Lourdes have split 12 previous meetings in Livonia, 6-6. 

Wrapping Up Last Week: Madonna held a six-point halftime lead on Wednesday at Aquinas, but the Saints rallied with a big second half run and held on for a 90-87 victory over the Gray Wolves.  Nick Welch and Little Anderson paced the Gray Wolves with 18 points each.  On Saturday, Lourdes shot 69.7% from the floor in the first half on the way to a 115-75 triumph at Wilberforce.  Joey Holifield scored a game-high 23 points while McRay White notched a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Scouting Indiana Tech: The Warriors are coming off a 78-73 victory on the road at Concordia (Mich.) on Saturday.  Rog Stein leads four Warriors averaging in double figures, scoring 17.0 points per game this season.  Grant Smith adds 15.2 points and a team-high 7.2 rebounds while Cory McKinney chips in 13.2 points per outing.  Josh Kline is tallying 11.7 points per game for Indiana Tech.

Scouting Madonna: The Crusaders enter the week having won two consecutive games after downing Goshen 83-81 on Saturday.  Madonna hosts Aquinas on Wednesday before entertaining Lourdes.  Mark Mettie leads the team scoring 20.8 points per game while Noah Campbell has added 10.0 points per night.  On the glass, Brendan Young is pulling down a team-high 7.0 rebounds per contest for the Crusaders.

Lighting Up the Scoreboard: Lourdes is averaging 104 points per game through the first four contests of the season.  The Gray Wolves have produced their top two scoring games in program history this season already, having tallied a school record 116 points against East-West before adding 115 in the win over Wilberforce.  Lourdes has never had more than two 100+ point games in a season prior to this year, scoring more than 100 twice in both 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.  The Gray Wolves have not scored fewer than 87 points in a game yet this season.

Perfection (Or Close To It): Joey Holifield leads Lourdes in scoring averaging 17.0 points per game this season.  The sophomore is a perfect 16-for-16 from the free throw line while shooting a blistering 70.3% from the floor on the season.  Holifield has tallied double figures in all four games this season.

Super Sub: Jackie Harris has been solid coming off the bench for the Gray Wolves in the first four games of the year.  He is averaging 19.8 minutes per contest while scoring 14.8 points and grabbing 6.8 rebounds per contest.  Harris is shooting 48.8% from the floor, including 41.9% (13-of-31) from three-point range.  

Making Shots: As a team, Lourdes is shooting 56.2% from the floor through the first four games of the year.  Inside the three-point arc, the Gray Wolves are connecting at a sizzling 68.0%.  Four Gray Wolves are shooting 65% or better from the field this season.

Crashing the Boards: Lourdes is outrebounding its opponents by 18.7 boards per game this season.  Nick Welch is averaging a double-double, pulling down 10.0 caroms per night in addition to scoring 14.0 points per game while McRay is grabbing 9.0 rebounds per game.

Lengthy Road Trip: The four-game road trip the Gray Wolves are completing this week is the team's longest since Dec. 12-22, 2015 when Lourdes also played four straight games on opponents home courts.  Lourdes went 1-3 during their last four-game trip.

Team Captains: The Gray Wolves have named tri-captains for the 2021-2022 season.  McRay White, Nick Welch, and Brett Lauf will also serve in the team's leadership roles this year.

Lourdes Tabbed Third in Preseason Poll: The Gray Wolves were selected to finish in third place in the WHAC this season in the preseason poll conducted of the league's head coaches.  Lourdes was picked just ahead of Madonna and just behind Rochester (Mich.) in the league balloting.  Indiana Tech is the favorite to win the WHAC in 2021-2022.

This and That: Lourdes is 161-164 all-time in the program's 12th season ... the Gray Wolves have two NAIA National Championship appearances (2012 and 2013) ... the Gray Wolves are 62-95 all-time in road games ... Lourdes is forcing 18.8 turnovers per game from the opposition.