The Basics
Final Score: North Texas 63, Detroit Mercy 57
Records: Detroit Mercy 0-5, North Texas 4-1
Location: Daytona Beach, Fla. (Ocean Center)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (11/24/2017) -- Senior forward
Brianne Cohen tallied her fifth-straight double-digit scoring effort with 21 points and
Anja Marinkovic added 16 points, but the University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball team fell to North Texas, 63-57, in the final day of the 2017 San Juan Shootout at the Ocean Center.
Cohen hit 12-of-13 free throws and Marinkovic scored 13 of her 16 points after the halftime break, hitting four 3-pointers overall in the contest. Freshman
Kayla Brown added seven points, while senior
Nicole Urbanick pulled down a career-best nine rebounds.
The Titans, playing their third game in four days, looked energetic from the start, scoring six of the first eight points of the contest. Brown, making her second career start, opened the scoring on a jumper from the wing and Cohen scored the next seven Titan points as Detroit Mercy went up 9-5 with 3:33 left in the first quarter.
Junior guard
Brittney Jackson hit a 3-pointer towards the end of the first and the two teams were tied after one, 13-13. The game was back and forth in the second quarter with the lead changing five times. After Marinkovic's first triple of the game, Jackson sank a jumper from the top of the key to give Detroit Mercy a 21-20 lead.
Sophomore
Ashley Miller converted on a lay-up after grabbing an offensive rebound towards the end of the quarter and Brown drilled an open 3-pointer from the corner. At the halftime break, the Titans trailed 34-31.
North Texas opened a 10-point lead midway through the third quarter, but the Titans continued to fight and chip away at the Mean Green lead.
Sophomore
Zoey Oatis and Marinkovic had back-to-back lay-ups to cut the North Texas lead to six, 42-36, with 3:18 left in the third. After the Mean Green pushed the lead to 10 again, Marinkovic hit a 3-pointer in the final minute of the third to cut the lead heading into the fourth quarter.
The Titans trailed 52-40 after two North Texas buckets to start the fourth, but Cohen's terrific free throw shooting again chipped away at the lead. She made her first 11 free throws of the contest and four-straight within 22 seconds to pull the Titans to within eight, 52-44, with 8:04 left.
Neither team scored for the next three minutes of the fourth until Cohen again sank two free throws to cut the deficit to six, 52-46, with 5:03 remaining. Marinkovic then sank two 3-pointers in the span of 50 seconds and Detroit Mercy trailed by just five, 57-52, with 3:20 left in the contest.
Detroit Mercy would get within five points two more times in the remainder of the game -- including on a lay-up from Cohen with 1:03 left on the clock. The bucket made the score 61-56 with kist over a minute remaining, but Detroit Mercy was unable to get any closer.
Detroit Mercy shot 16-for-45 (35.6 percent) in the contest, sinking seven 3-pointers. The Titans again got to the free throw line often and made 18-of-29 (62.1 percent) in the game. The red, white and blue won the rebounding battle with North Texas, 41-40.
Urbanick had seven rebounds in the first half and finished with a career-high nine in the game, playing a team-best 37 minutes. Jackson had six first-half points for the Titans, while freshman
Lexey Tobel added seven rebounds for Detroit Mercy.
Titan News & Notes
• Detroit Mercy was making its third appearance at the San Juan Shootout in program history.
• The Titans and North Texas were meeting for the first time in women's basketball.
• Cohen's 21 points were her third 20-point game of the season and 19th of her career.
• Detroit Mercy has made 59 free throws in the past three games.
• Urbanick's previous career-high in rebounds was seven, which she tied in the first half alone.
