The Basics
Final Score: Detroit Mercy 57, Northern Kentucky 49
Records: Detroit Mercy 8-9 (4-2 HL), Northern Kentucky 5-13 (1-5 HL)
Location: Detroit, Mich. (Calihan Hall)
DETROIT (1/16/2017) -- Junior
Nicole Urbanick tallied a game-high 20 points and senior
Rosanna Reynolds surpassed the 1,500-point plateau for her career as the University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball team earned a 57-49 win over visiting Northern Kentucky on Monday at Calihan Hall.
With the win, Detroit Mercy (8-9 overall) improved to 4-2 in the Horizon League. The 49 points allowed by Detroit Mercy is the fewest allowed by the Titans during second-year head coach
Bernard Scott's tenure. Detroit Mercy never trailed in the victory, improving to 4-2 at home this season.
Reynolds, who scored 16 points in the game, became the fifth player in Titan women's basketball history to score 1,500 points and she also passed former Titan Michelle James for fourth place on the all-time scoring list.
Urbanick, who was 5-of-7 from deep in the game, had her shooting stroke going early, sinking two triples in the opening quarter. The first came in a 9-2 run to open the game for the Titans. Junior forward
Brianne Cohen scored the first four points of the game and was followed by Urbanick's trey. Urbanick later added another in the stanza and the Titans led after the first, 14-11.
Urbanick opened the second quarter with her third 3-pointer to give Detroit Mercy a 17-11 advantage. Northern Kentucky tied the game up, 21-21, but the Titans scored the next seven points, four of them by Reynolds, to go ahead 28-21 with 2:28 left in the first half. NKU would close the gap, but the Titans held a halftime edge, 28-26.
Detroit Mercy opened the second half on a 5-0 run with Reynolds scoring on a lay-up, which was followed by a wide-open Cohen 3-pointer from the wing as the Titans went up 33-26. NKU would hang around in the third, but freshman
Anja Marinkovic scored on a lay-up with 16 seconds left to give Detroit Mercy a 40-35 lead after three.
After the Norse opened the fourth with a triple, Detroit Mercy scored 11 of the next 15 points to take a 51-42 lead with 5:46 remaining. Reynolds hit the 1,500-point plateau with a deep 3-pointer from the top of arc and Urbanick followed her teammate with two more triples to give Detroit Mercy a nine-point lead and force a timeout from the NKU bench.
Brittney Jackson added a jumper minutes later and Urbanick hit two free throws to give Detroit Mercy its biggest lead of 13, 55-42, with 3:43 to go. The Titan defense did the rest, just allowing Norse free throws in the final minutes for the victory. Detroit Mercy didn't allow a field goal in the final 2:54 of the game.
Detroit Mercy had a season-low nine turnovers in the contest and tallied eight steals against just two for NKU. The Titans made 7-of-8 from the free throw line and sank eight triples in the contest, matching their season average from deep.
Reynolds had a team-high four assists, while senior
Haleigh Ristovski grabbed a team-best eight rebounds and tied a season-best with four steals. Cohen added nine points, while Jackson finished with four points and two assists off the bench.
The Titans shot 37.5 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from downtown in the game. Detroit Mercy held NKU to 23.5 percent shooting (4-for-17) from beyond the arc and forced 22 NKU turnovers.
Rebecca Lyttle had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds for NKU (5-13, 1-5 HL).
Titan News & Notes
• It was the seventh 20-point game of Urbanick's career and second this season.
• Reynolds has 98 assists on the season, just two shy of her fourth 100-assist season.
• Urbanick has nine contests of three or more 3-pointers made this season.
• Urbanick has scored in double figures in seven of her past nine games.
• Reynolds has scored in double figures 13 times this season.
• It was
Haleigh Ristovski's second game of four steals in 2016-17. She has 14 steals in her past four games.
• Detroit Mercy has eight or more steals in five of its past six contests.
• The Titans have 10 games of eight or more triples this season.
• Detroit Mercy is 2-1 all-time against the Norse and have won both at home.
• Head coach
Bernard Scott is 15-9 career in Horizon League contests.
Up Next
Detroit Mercy returns to the court Friday for a 7 p.m. ET contest against Youngstown State. The game is set to be streamed live on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN Applications with
Denny Kapp calling all of the action.
