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GREEN BAY, Wis. (3/7/2015) -- Redshirt sophomore Rosanna Reynolds game-winning shot just came up short as the University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball team staged a huge rally to nearly upset first place Green Bay, 52-51, on Saturday at the Kress Center.
 
The loss dropped Detroit to 12-17 overall and 7-9 in the Horizon League. The Titans will be the fifth seed in the upcoming Horizon League Championship and will play their quarterfinals game at fourth-seeded Youngstown State on Wednesday, March 11, at 7:00 p.m.
 
Freshman Nicole Urbanick led the way with a game-high 17 points, tying her season high, along with five rebounds. Sophomore Haleigh Ristovski had 11 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals and Reynolds ended with 10 points, four boards and three assists.
 
The Titans cut a one time 20-point deficit down to just one with 35 seconds left. Detroit opted to play defense and forced a Green Bay miss with about seven seconds on the clock and had to hurry up the floor, where Reynolds threw up an off-balanced three that went to the right side of the hoop.
 
Detroit was down by 20 early in the second half and 16, 49-33, with 6:33 left when the red, white and blue ended the game on an 18-3 run. The defense held Green Bay to just 0-of-6 from the field and five turnovers during that time with the Phoenix scoring on just three free throws.
 
Reynolds started the spurt with a three and then freshman Darianne Seward came up with a steal and was fouled, hitting both free throws. Green Bay (25-4, 15-1 HL) would make two from the charity stripe to up the lead to 13, 51-38, but Reynolds then came up with a steal and laid it in to make it 51-40 at the 4:08 mark.
 
Ristosvki was then fouled and stepped to the line hitting a pair and after both teams went scoreless for two minutes, Urbanick drilled another triple to cut it to 51-45 with 1:38 remaining. UDM got even closer as Ristovski found the bottom of the net from behind the arc with 52 seconds on the clock and it was just a three-point contest, 51-48.
 
Green Bay hit 1-of-2 at the line to make it a two-possession game, but Urbanick's season-high fifth three had the Titans down by just one, 52-51, with 35 seconds left.
 
The Titans shot 40.7 percent in the second half and forced Green Bay into 13 total turnovers, all while holding the Phoenix to 33.3 percent (18-of-54) shooting – 25.9 percent in the second half (7-of-27) – and 2-of-16 from three.
 
Freshman Brianne Cohen tallied seven points and six rebounds and senior Ellisha Crosby recorded three boards, three assists and two steals.
 
Detroit played hard right from the start hitting a three to begin the game as Urbanick was able to knock it down. Green Bay responded with a 13-2 run to take the lead and had a double-digit advantage the rest of the first half.
 
Urbanick did her best to keep the Detroit offense afloat scoring the team's first 11 points, nine with the three ball. The Phoenix had a 14-point lead, 22-8, with seven minutes left when the red, white and blue started to chip away.
 
Urbanick hit another three to make it 22-11. Freshman Chea Taylor would get UDM back to 11 again at 24-13, as she was able to back her defender down and connect on a jump shot. Detroit inched even closer as Ristovski drained a trey to pull the Titans within 10, 26-16, but Green Bay was able to take a 29-16 lead at the break.
 
Green Bay extended its lead to 20, 36-16, at the 17:46 mark in the second half and was ahead by 19, 44-25, with 11:29 left.
 
The Horizon League Championship will begin on Monday with Milwaukee hosting Valparaiso in the opening round game. All the quarterfinals will take place on Wednesday with the top four seeds hosting. The highest remaining seed after the quarterfinals will then host the semifinals and championship.
 
Game Notes:
Green Bay now leads the overall series, 43-7… UDM is 2-23 all-time in Green Bay… The Titans would face the Phoenix again in the semifinals of the HL Championship if both of the teams wins their quarterfinals game… Detroit came into the game averaging just 14.9 fouls per game – first in the HL and 22nd in the nation - but had 10 whistled against them in the first half alone and 21 for the game… Urbanick also had 17 at Valparaiso last week… It was Reynolds' 25th double figure scoring outing of the season…