DETROIT (11/16/2016) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball squad plays in its third-straight road contest to start the 2016-17 season Friday morning, visiting Bradley University for a Noon ET/11 a.m. CT contest from Renaissance Coliseum in Peoria, Ill. The game is set to be streamed via ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN Applications.
The Titans (1-1) are coming off a split on the road during the season's opening weekend. Detroit Mercy scored 85.5 points per game in its two games, defeating Delaware State in its opener before falling in a hard-fought effort at East Carolina in overtime.
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Preseason Honors
The Titans were picked to finish second in the Horizon League Preseason Poll. Detroit Mercy received 253 votes to finish second to reigning league champion Green Bay, who earned 299 votes and received 29 of the 30 first-place tallies. Senior guardÂ
Rosanna Reynolds, a two-time All-League player, was named the Preseason Player of the Year, while junior forwardÂ
Brianne Cohen was named to the Preseason All-HL Second Team.Â
The selection of second in the preseason poll is the highest for the squad since the 2012-13 season, which Detroit Mercy was also picked second behind the Phoenix. The Titans finished last season fourth in the regular season standings.
Opening Weekend
The Titans earned a 90-71 victory over Delaware State in their season opener on the road. It was Detroit Mercy's first victory in an opener since the 2010-11 campaign. Detroit Mercy was led in scoring by senior guard
Rosanna Reynolds, who tallied a game-high 29 points. Junior guard
Nicole Urbanick added 18 points, while a quartet of players --
Brianne Cohen,
Brittney Jackson,
Kelsey Mitchell and
Cortney Williams -- all just missed double figures with eight points each.
Williams' matched her career-high in points in her Detroit Mercy debut. She also scored eight points in her freshman season at Loyola (Ill.) in 2014-15. The Titans hit 11 3-pointers during the contest and led by as many as 34 points during the third quarter. Making their Detroit Mercy debuts were freshmen
Anja Marinkovic,
Ashley Miller and
Zoey Oatis, along with Williams and graduate transfer
Kelsey Mitchell, who spent the last four years at the University of Michigan.
The Titans dropped an 83-81 overtime game at East Carolina on Sunday, Nov. 13. The game featured 11 lead changes in the second half and overtime. Detroit Mercy hit 11 3-pointers for the second-straight game, with Urbanick connecting on four triples. Reynolds led the Titans again with 19 points, adding seven assists and three steals. Cohen tallied 18 points, while Urbanick finished with 16 points in the contest.
Haleigh Ristovski was one of her career-best with 16 rebounds.
All-Time Series
The Titans and Braves have met just once previously, meeting during the 2004-05 season. Bradley earned a 78-75 win on Nov. 27, 2004 in a game that was the opener for both teams at the Buckeye Classic in Columbus, Ohio. It was the second game of that season for Detroit Mercy.
Scouting Bradley
The Braves are 0-2 in the young 2016-17 season, having lost both games away from Peoria. Bradley dropped its season opener at Kent State before falling in a close contest at Butler on Sunday. It's the home opener for the Braves at Renaissance Coliseum. Bradley finished 9-22 last season, which included a 5-9 record in home games. The Braves were 4-14 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Leti Lerma scores 12.5 points per game and Madison Dellamuth also averages in double figures at 10.5 points per game. Lerma is also the leading rebounder so far in 2016-17 at 5.5 boards per game. As a team, the squad is scoring 54.0 points per game and has a 33.3 shooting clip after two contests.
Three's Company
The Titans set a school record with 234, 3-pointers last season and have three players who are in the top 11 in career triples made entering 2016-17.
Nicole Urbanick (123 triples),
Haleigh Ristovski (115) and
Rosanna Reynolds (114) all surpassed 100 3-pointers made last year, having combined for 154 treys last year.
The trio have combined for 18 triples already in 2016-17 as the Titans have 22 3-pointers after two games.
2015-16 Season Review
The Titans went 11-7 in Horizon League play to finish fourth under first-year head coachÂ
Bernard Scott. Detroit Mercy went 15-15 overall, which included a 7-2 mark in league games away from Calihan Hall.
Detroit Mercy led the Horizon League in conference games in both field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage and didn't drop consecutive games during the Horizon League season, sweeping the series with Milwaukee, Valparaiso and Cleveland State.
Moving On Up
Senior guard
Rosanna Reynolds began the season 15th on the all-time scoring list and passed three former Titans and is currently 12th all-time in scoring with 1,274 points. She also moved past Michelle James for fourth place in total assists (406), becoming the fourth player in school history to reach the 400 plateau. With her next start, she'll also become the sixth player all-time to start in 100 career contests for the red, white and blue.Â
Junior
Haleigh Ristovski is also moving up in the Titan record books, having passed Shareta Brown in total rebounds. She is in ninth place with 629 caroms. Ristovski is also 11th in career 3-pointers made (118) and 12th in total blocks (70).
Titans Ranked No. 4 in NCAA's GSR Report
The Titans had the fourth-best ranking in the NCAA's latest Graduate Success Rate (GSR) report among Horizon League women's basketball teams. The Titans had a 91-percent success rate during the 2006-09 years. Ahead of the Titans in the report were Oakland, Green Bay and Valparaiso.
Motor City Madness
For the first time, the Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship joins the men's at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The championship is set to run from March 3-7 with the title game being televised on ESPNU at 12 p.m. on March 7. The championships move from Joe Louis Arena to the new Little Caesars Arena in 2017-18.
On Tap
The Titans open the home schedule Monday, Nov. 21 at Calihan Hall, hosting Kent State in a 7 p.m. game on ESPN3. Detroit Mercy then travels to California for the Thanksgiving holiday, playing in the Cal State Northridge Thanksgiving Classic from Nov. 25-26 against the Matadors and either Delaware or Michigan State.
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