DETROIT (1/22/2020) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball team returns to the road this weekend, beginning with a Thursday night clash with host Wright State in Dayton. It's the start of a three-game road swing for the Titans, with the red, white and blue also playing Northern Kentucky this weekend.
Opening tip for Thursday's game is 7 p.m. ET from the Nutter Center on the campus of Wright State. The game may also be seen live via ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN Applications.
On The Court:
- The Titans are coming off a 1-1 home weekend with a 70-59 victory coming over Cleveland State last Thursday. It was the second HL win of the season for the Titans.
- Freshman Sylare Starks averaged 14.0 points and classmate Bridgid Fox averaged 13.5 points and 7.0 rebounds last week for Detroit Mercy.
- Starks leads the team and all Horizon League freshmen in scoring at 9.9 points per game; She has scored in double figures 11 times in 2019-20.
- Titan freshmen as a class have scored in double figures 24 times this season.
- Freshman guard Annika Corcoran is tied for third in the Horizon League, averaging 3.4 assists in conference contests.
- Senior Zoey Oatis ranks second in the Horizon League in steals per game (1.8) and 14th in the Horizon League in rebounding (6.1 caroms per game).
- Fox is averaging 8.1 points per game and 5.1 rebounds per game in the past 10 games (all starts) for the Titans.
- The Titans have earned three Horizon League Freshman of the Week honors from three different players -- Sylare Starks (Nov. 25), Bridgid Fox (Dec. 16) and Markyia McCormick (Dec. 23). It's the first time in league history that three different players from the same team have earned the Freshman of the Week honor in the same season.
- Four Titan freshmen have already surpassed 100 career points -- Starks (179 points), McCormick (145), Fox (121) and Corcoran (104).
- Detroit Mercy tallied 22 assists in the victory over Cleveland State, the most for the program since 25 helpers in a victory over UIC on Dec. 31, 2016.
- The Titans and Raiders are meeting for the 57th time in women's basketball (series tied, 28-28).
- The Titans are one of the youngest teams in NCAA Division I with 10 underclassmen (five freshmen, five sophomores) and holds an average age of 19.3 on its roster.
- Head coach Bernard Scott is in his fifth season at the helm of the Titans and has led them to two top-four finishes and a Horizon League championship game in 2017.
- The red, white and blue are 2-5 in the first seven Horizon League contests in 2019-20, with victories coming over UIC on the road and Cleveland State at home.
Scouting Wright State:
- Wright State is among the Horizon League leaders with a 5-2 mark as the league nears the midway point of the conference season.
- The Raiders are 10-8 overall. WSU is 4-1 in home games this season.
- Wright State has won five of the past six games with its only loss coming on the road at IUPUI on Jan. 11.
- Sophomore guard Angel Baker ranks second in the Horizon League in scoring at 17.0 points per game and also leads the team in assists per game (3.1) and steals per game (1.4). Baker is also hitting 40.6-percent of 3-point shots this season.
- Junior center Tyler Frierson paces the team at 8.8 rebounds per game, good for second in the HL.
- Senior Michal Miller is second on the squad at 13.0 points per game and shares the team lead with Baker with 26 triples made so far in 2019-20.
Last Time Out
Freshmen
Bridgid Fox and
Sylare Starks both scored 15 points on Saturday at home against Youngstown State, but the Titans dropped a 62-47 contest against the Penguins to close out a four-game homestand from Calihan Hall. Fox scored a career-high 15, her fifth game in double figures in her freshman campaign. Starks was in double-figures for the 11th time in 2019-20, sinking three 3-pointers in the contest.
The Titans held a two-point lead at halftime, 27-25, but YSU used a third-quarter run to take command of the contest on Saturday. Senior
Zoey Oatis tied her season-high with 12 rebounds, while freshman guard
Annika Corcoran continued her strong season passing the ball, tallying five assists for the Titans. Fox made 7-of-8 from the free throw line and 4-of-6 shots from the field.
Freshmen Scoring
A bulk of the scoring output for the Titans this season have come from their freshmen class with the five true Detroit Mercy freshmen scoring 53-percent of the points in the 2019-20 season. Titan freshmen have accounted for 571 of the 1,045 points scored this season (54.6%) or 31.8 points of the 58.1 points scored per game.
Sylare Starks leads the team and all Horizon League freshmen at 9.9 points per game, while classmate
Markyia McCormick is second on the squad and fourth among league rookies in scoring at 8.1 points per game.
Bridgid Fox (6.7 ppg) and
Annika Corcoran (5.8 ppg) are fifth and sixth on the squad in scoring. Further, 70 of the 96, 3-pointers made this season have been by the freshmen class -- Starks (28), Corcoran (18), McCormick (17),
Abbie McDowell (6) and Fox (1). Four Titan freshmen have score more than 100 career points already with Starks (179), McCormick (145), Fox (121) and Corcoran (104) all surpassing the plateau in their first 17 games.
Up Next
Detroit Mercy heads to Northern Kentucky for a Saturday afternoon contest in Highland Heights, Ky. The Titans then visit Oakland the following Saturday, on Feb. 1, for a Metro Series battle with Oakland to open the second-half of the Horizon League schedule. The next home game for the Titans is on Thursday, Feb. 6 against IUPUI.
