This Week's Men's Basketball Storylines:

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HITTING THE ROAD: After playing their first five games in McCown Gym, the Warriors will finally get a taste of the road this weekend when they travel for the first time this season to take on Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls. WSU will face the Mustangs at 8 p.m. Friday before traveling to Sioux Falls for a 6 p.m. matchup with the Cougars on Saturday.

100^TH MEETING: The Warriors and Mustangs will be meeting for the 100^th time in series history Friday night. WSU holds a 65-34 series lead dating back to 1968, including winning 22 of the last 25 meetings. The Mustangs knocked off the Warriors 73-71 in the R/A Facility last season when a Taylor Cameron 3-pointer to win was off-line at the buzzer.

SHORT HISTORY: The Warriors and Cougars will be matching up for just the sixth time overall dating back to 1969 and fifth meeting since USF joined the NSIC in 2012. The Warriors hold a 4-1 series lead, with WSU winning the first four before a 76-69 victory in Sioux Falls on Jan. 18, 2014.

SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS: Southwest Minnesota State opens the weekend with a record of 5-2 record, with a 1-0 mark in NSIC play. The Mustangs won their NSIC opener Tuesday by beating Sioux Falls 72-68 in Marshall. SMSU has three scorers averaging double digits, led by Joey Bartlett's 13.3 ppg, Cole Martin's 12.7 ppg and Mitch Weg's 11.9 ppg. SMSU head coach Brad Bigler is in his sixth season with a record of 88-65.

SCOUTING THE COUGARS: The University of Sioux Falls enters the weekend slate with a 2-4 record and an 0-1 mark in league play after dropping their NSIC opener to Sioux Falls 72-68 Tuesday in Marshall. The Cougars are led by the duo of Charles Ward and Mack Johnson, who are averaging 17.2 ppg and 15.2 ppg respectively. The Cougars are coached by Chris Johnson, who's compiled a 118-75 record in his seven seasons.

FREE THROWS WIN: After struggling from the charity stripe to begin the year, it was perhaps the Warriors' biggest asset in the NSIC-opening win over Upper Iowa last Saturday. The Warriors attempted 38 free throws, making 31, for an 82 percent clip to beat the Peacocks 89-70 in McCown Gym.

GRAY DAY, PART II: Just a week after Isaiah Gray set a career high with 24 points and nine rebounds in a win over Cardinal Stritch, Gray was back for more against the Peacocks. The sophomore set another career high, scoring 29 points on 5-of-8 shooting and a pair of 3-pointers. He also snatched nine more rebounds and did much of his damage on the strength of 17-of-19 from the free throw line – including making his first 16 straight.

BLOCK PARTY: Kyle Bauman set a career high with five blocked shots against Wisconsin-Superior and has a total of eight on the season, ranking third in the NSIC at 1.6 per game. Mohamed Ali Ben Ammar is right behind, ranking fifth in the league with 1.2 blocks per game. As a team, the Warriors rank No. 1 in the NSIC by a wide margin with 28 blocks and 5.6 swats per game. The second highest total is MSU Moorhead with 3.6 per game.

MR. CONSISTENCY: Sophomore guard Riley Bambenek is off to another hot start. He currently ranks third in the NSIC in scoring, averaging 18.8 points per game. He also ranks in the top ten in 3-pointers made (11, 2.2 per game) and 3-point field goal percentage (.524). The reigning freshman of the year has shot better than 50 percent from the field in all but one game this season (Upper Iowa, 7-of-15) and has scored between 16 and 22 points in every game.