Gameday Central - Bradley
DETROIT (11/12/2015) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball team opens the 2015-16 regular season Friday evening, hosting visiting Bradley University for a 7 p.m. game inside historic Calihan Hall. The game is set to be streamed on ESPN3.com with play-by-play announcer
Denny Kapp and color commentator
Colin MacDonald calling the action.
Detroit is entering its 39th year of women's basketball and first under its new head coach,
Bernard Scott. A 15-year veteran in the women's basketball coaching ranks, Scott will make his head coaching debut for the Titans on Friday. Scott, who was hired in May, was previously the associate head coach of women's basketball at Cleveland State.
The Titans are coming off a 72-38 exhibition victory over nearby Lawrence Tech, an NAIA school in Detroit. Sophomore guard
Nicole Urbanick (Grosse Ile, Mich. / Divine Child) tallied a game-high 25 points, hitting 5-of-10 shots from beyond the arc. Classmate
Brianne Cohen (Toronto, Ont. / York Memorial) notched a double-double in the win over Lawrence Tech.
Reynolds Selected Preseason First Team All-LeagueJunior guard
Rosanna Reynolds (Canton, Mich. / Divine Child) was picked to the Preseason All-Horizon League First Team and was one of three juniors named to the First Team. Reynolds, who was a Second Team All-Horizon League honoree last year as a sophomore, led the Titans with 15.7 points and 3.4 assists per game last year. She was second in the Horizon League in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.4), fourth in three-pointers per game (2.0) and three-point percentage (37.8).
Titans Picked to Finish Seventh in Horizon LeagueThe University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball team was picked to finish seventh as the 2015-16 Horizon League preseason poll was released by the league office on Wednesday, Nov. 4. In the preseason poll, Detroit earned 157 points overall and finished just five votes out of fifth place. Fifth-place Oakland (162 points) and Cleveland State (161 points), who received one first-place vote, placed just in front of the Titans.
Reigning league champion Green Bay was picked to finish first in the conference and received 25 of the 31 first-place votes. Wright State received four first-place votes and was selected to place second. UIC, Youngstown State and the Golden Grizzlies rounded out the top five.
Sisters vs. SisterIt'll be a family reunion of sorts Sunday when Detroit sisters and teammates Haleigh and
Lola Ristovski host the University of Michigan and elder sister Madison Ristovski for a 2 p.m. contest at Calihan Hall. Madison is entering her senior season for U-M, while Lola is beginning her first for the Titans. Haleigh is in her third season with UDM.
Haleigh and Madison have faced each other in the past two seasons, but this is the first time all three sisters will be playing in a collegiate basketball game on the same court. All three players, natives of Sterling Heights, starred in high school at nearby University Liggett in Grosse Pointe Woods. In Madison's senior year, all three sisters started for University Liggett and reached the state championship game in Class C. The trio scored 53 of Liggett's 57 points in the state championship game loss to Morley-Stanwood.
Michigan has won both previous meetings involving the two older Ristovskis as U-M earned a 76-57 win last season and 83-63 triumph in 2013-14. Madison scored 14 points in their first meeting and five points last year, while Haleigh has totaled 17 rebounds in two meetings against Michigan.
Great Scott!The Titans enter the 2015-16 under a new head coach in
Bernard Scott, who previously was an assistant coach at Cleveland State. A 15-year coaching veteran, Scott is the 11th coach in Detroit women's basketball history. It's his first collegiate head coaching job. Joining Scott's staff at Detroit are assistant coaches
Tara Fleming and
Molly Bateman.
Ke'Sha Blanton returns for her fourth season as an assistant coach at Detroit, while
AJ Burton and
Shareese McBrayer are back for their second seasons as graduate assistant coaches.
Starters RetuningDetroit returns several starters from a season ago, including Second Team All-Horizon League guard
Rosanna Reynolds, who led the Titans in scoring (15.7 ppg) and assists (101) last season. The junior from Canton, Mich. also led Detroit with 59 three-point field goals last year. Reynolds is one of the top returning scorers in the Horizon League, trailing just UIC's Ruvanna Campbell (17.7 ppg). Reynolds, with 758 career points, is within range of becoming the 20th player in Detroit women's basketball history to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
Like Reynolds, junior
Haleigh Ristovski started all 30 games for Detroit in 2014-15. Ristovski led the Horizon League and was 11th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.51) as a sophomore and led Detroit at 7.1 boards per game. Sophomore guard
Nicole Urbanick started 11 contests as a true freshman and finished second on the squad in three-point percentage (35.4), while scoring 7.1 points per game.
Role Players ReturningFive of the top six scorers return for the Titans, including sophomore
Brianne Cohen, who scored 3.5 points per game last year along with finishing third on the squad with 15 blocks. Sophomore
Chea Taylor played in 25 games in her rookie year and should see an increase in playing time in her second season at UDM.
NewcomersThree freshmen join the squad for 2015-16. Guard
Lola Ristovski joins her sister on the team as a local product, while guard
Brittney Jackson and forward
Taylor Malone come in from Brooklyn, N.Y. and Chicago, Ill., respectively. Transfer forward
Cortney Williams also joins the team after playing last year at Loyola and will sit out the 2015-16 season due to NCAA transfer rules.
NKU Joins Horizon League The Horizon League will have a 10th member for women's basketball in 2015-16 after Northern Kentucky joined the league over the summer. UDM's first league meeting with NKU is Jan. 16 in Detroit.
Green Bay to Host HL ChampionshipsGreen Bay is set to host the Horizon League Championships for the 2015-16 season. The reigning league champions will host all four rounds of the championships from March 10-13. The Horizon League Championship game is set for March 13 on ESPNU.
Up NextDetroit hosts Michigan on Sunday for a 2 p.m. game at Calihan Hall. All three Ristovski sisters are scheduled to compete against each other in the contest. The game may be seen live on ESPN3.com. Following the home game against the Wolverines, the Titans hit the road for a pair out East, playing at Maryland on Nov. 20 and at St. Bonaventure on Nov. 24.
