DETROIT (2/7/2020) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball team hosts its annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day from Calihan Hall on Saturday afternoon when the Titans welcome the visiting UIC Flames into town for a 1 p.m. ET contest. The game is also set for a WADL TV-38 and ESPN-Plus broadcast.
The National Girls & Women in Sports Day festivities are set to begin at 10 a.m. and continue through the game with participants performing a dance routine at halftime of the game against the Flames. Detroit Red Wings host Carley Johnston is slated to speak to the National Girls & Women in Sports Day participants prior to the event to help kick it off. For more information on NGWSD, please visit
www.detroittitans.com/NGWSD.
The Titan women's basketball team will also be wearing Purple T-shirts and playing for softball student-athlete Leena Mortensen, who is fighting Lymphoma. You may purchase the Purple T-shirts for $20 inside Calihan Hall to help support Leena in her fight against cancer.
On The Court:
- The Titans are 2-9 in Horizon League play, a half-game ahead of UIC (2-10 HL) in the league standings.
- Detroit Mercy is 7-2 all-time against the Flames under head coach Bernard Scott and 32-24 in the all-time series against UIC.
- Three Titans scored in double figures on Thursday -- Bridgid Fox (13 points), Sylare Starks (10) and Aly Reiff (10).
- Starks continues to lead all Horizon League freshmen in scoring at 10.0 points per game; She has a team-high 13 double-figure scoring efforts in 2019-20.
- Senior Zoey Oatis ranks third in the league in steals (36) and steals per game (1.6).
- Freshman guard Annika Corcoran ranks seventh in the Horizon League in assists per game (3.2 per game) in Horizon League contests.
- Titan freshmen overall have scored in double figures 30 times this season with the class scoring 53-percent of the points for the squad.
- 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.
- Starks was the fastest Titan to 200 career points (20 games) since the 2014-15 season, when Darianne Seward reached the mark in 18 contests.
- 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.
Scouting UIC:
- UIC is 3-20 overall this season and 2-10 in Horizon League play after falling at Oakland on Thursday by a 63-46 margin.
- The Flames recently picked up their second league win with a 59-53 home win over Youngstown State last week. UIC also has a win over Oakland at home in Horizon League play.
- Junior forward Jada Nneji leads the team in scoring (10.4 points per game) and rebounding (7.1 per game), adding a league-high 43 blocks in 2019-20.
- In conference play, freshman guard Tiana Jackson is averaging 9.2 points per game and is second on the squad with 35 assists in league action.
- Junior guard Abreanna Lake leads the team overall with 72 assists on the season (3.1 per game).
- Freshman guard Kimeira Burks has knocked down a team-best 24 triples.
Last Time Out
Three Titans scored in double figures Thursday evening from Calihan Hall as the Titans dropped a 95-54 home contest against league-leading IUPUI. The Titans fell to 2-9 in Horizon League play, while the Jaguars moved to 11-1 in conference action. It was the team's Pink Game with Detroit Mercy raising money for Gilda's Club Metro Detroit, a local cancer support organization.
Freshman forward
Bridgid Fox led the team with 13 points, while freshman guard
Sylare Starks and junior
Aly Reiff each adding 10 points. Reiff's 10 points tied a season-high and her team-best seven rebounds also tied a career-high. Sophomore forward
Nicole Johanson tallied three blocks and three steals for the Titans, which shot 38.9 percent (21-of-54) from the floor.
Up Next
Detroit Mercy returns to the road in each of the next two weekends, visiting Wisconsin for games against Green Bay (Friday, Feb. 14) and Milwaukee (Sunday, Feb. 16) next weekend before heading to Ohio for road games against Youngstown State and Cleveland State the following weekend. Detroit Mercy's next home game is Thursday, Feb. 27 against Northern Kentucky.
