YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio-- Detroit clinched the third seed in the upcoming Horizon League tournament with a 76-74 win at Youngstown State Saturday afternoon at the Beeghly Center in the regular season finale for both teams. The Titans will play host to tenth-seeded Loyola on Tuesday night at Calihan Hall in the first round of the tourney.

YSU (15-14, 10-8 Horizon) will fall to the sixth seed in the tournament and will host the seven seed, Green Bay. Both teams were playing for the opportunity to nab the third seed in a jumbled Horizon League ladder.  

Detroit (18-13, 11-7) seized the opportunity thanks to a balanced scoring attack that featured five players in double figures led by 18 from senior Chase Simon. Leading by two in the final ten seconds, Detroit got a slam by senior Eli Holman to push the lead to four and all but seal the deal.  Kendrick Perry made a pair from the line and Ray McCallum was quickly fouled with 3.3 remaining.

McCallum missed the front end of the bonus opportunity but the rebound was deflected out of bounds and the Titans held on for the win.  With Cleveland State securing the two seed moments earlier, Detroit was able to lock-up the third spot and force Milwaukee and Butler to sweat out the final pieces of the HL tourney puzzle for the fourth and fifth seeds, respectively.

Saturday's contest had the feel of the postseason already with eight ties and six lead changes.  McCallum scored seven quick points to stake the visitors to a 9-3 lead.  An 11-0 YSU run wiped-out the momentum and the Penguins controlled the game until another fastbreak bucket by McCallum squared things at 23-apiece.

An Evan Bruinsma triple put the final touches on a 36-32 lead for Detroit at the break as the Titans were an efficient 7-16 from deep for the contest.  Bruinsma later finished a tough putback underneath, part of a 12-2 spurt that gave the Titans their largest lead at 10 with 9:32 to play.

It was around that time in the game Thursday at Cleveland State that the Titans went on a drought from the floor that ended up costing them the game.  Jason Calliste hit a three from deep to rest any fears of a repeat and LaMarcus Lowe flushed home an alley-oop to completely squelch the notion.

YSU did not go quietly, however.  After a McCallum jumper to put the Titans up eight with 4:03 to go, seven straight Penguin points put the score 70-69 with just 2:25 remaining.  Holman connected to put it back at three but a pair of Perry free throws sliced it back to one.  Simon made good on two from the charity stripe and Ashen Ward split his to make it a two-point game with 43 seconds left and Detroit with possession.

The visitors milked the clock until under 10 on the shot clock and Holman hammered down a dunk with nine seconds left to put the exclamation mark on the win in a truly balanced effort.  Every Titan that got into the game had at least one assist, part of 18 helpers combined.  The scoring load was spread amongst seven players, including 15 combined from the bench (Holman- 10, Bruinsma- 5).

McCallum finished with 15 points and six assists while Doug Anderson and Lowe each contributed 10 points.  One game after shooting 21 percent in the second half (5-23), Detroit torched the net at a 65 percent (15-23) clip in the second stanza Saturday to earn the third seed, its highest since the 2004-05 season. 

Perry led all scorers with 22 points while Blake Allen and DuShawn Brooks each added 13 for the Penguins.

Detroit will host a HL First Round Tournament game Tuesday, Feb. 28 at Calihan Hall at 7:00 p.m. The Titans will welcome the tenth-seeded Loyola Ramblers for a 7:00 p.m. tip on the Horizon League Network.

Notes: The last time Detroit had a three-seed in the HL tournament, the Titans advanced all the way to the championship game, falling by a single point to Milwaukee for the title (2005) ... Detroit's 11 league wins are its most since 1998-99 (12-2) ... the winner of Tuesday's first round game would advance to a Friday quaterfinal against the winner of #7 Green Bay and #6 Youngstown State at top-seed Valparaiso ... Detroit defeated Loyola in the first round of the HL tournament last season, a 90-69 win on Mar. 1, 2011 ... Detroit finished the season with a 5-4 road mark in league play ... The Titans moved to 6-2 during the month of February, the most wins in any calendar month this season.