DETROIT (3-5-24) - Junior Emma Trawally Porta had eight points on 3-for-6 shooting with four rebounds while matching a season-best five blocks (just missing her career-high by one) while senior Irene Murua had 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting with six boards as Detroit Mercy outlasted Robert Morris 59-48 to secure their first #HLWBB Championship first round win since the 2016-17 season on Tuesday night at Calihan Hall. Trawally Porta now has 134 career blocks just two away from ranking fourth all-time in school history.

UDM will now travel to No. 3 seed Purdue Fort Wayne for a quarterfinal showdown on Thur., Mar. 7 at 7 pm.

Hot shooting proved to be the difference for the Titans (17-15) as they shot a season second-best 52.1% (25-for-48) from the field with seven of the nine players who scored shooting 50% or better from the field. In addition to Trawally Porta and Murua, senior Lucia Fleta Robles had eight points going 3-for-6 from the field with two triples with senior Jada Moorehead adding four points going 2-for-4 while grabbing a career-best 10 rebounds. 

Freshman Paris Gilmore had nine points going 4-for-6 and 1-for-1 from 3-point range while sophomore Myonna Hooper also had nine points on 4-of-8 shooting. Freshman Kamari Forrest also hit her only shot of the game with a driving layup in the fourth quarter.
Buckets were hard to come by to open the game as RMU (6-24) led 11-5 by the media time-out. Murua hit a buzzer-beating layup to cap off an 8-2 run to pull the Titans even at 13-13 at the end of the first.

Both teams played even to open the second quarter at 24-24 with 3:46 left. UDM once again used a late 8-0 run to close out the frame to lead 32-24 at the half.

UDM's run continued to open the third quarter as the Titans used a 10-5 spurt to reach their biggest lead of the game at 13 points, 42-29, with 6:07 left. Detroit Mercy outscored RMU 17-13 overall for a 49-37 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

The Colonials would not go away as they cut the deficit to single digits at eight points, 51-43, at the 5:56 mark before graduate student Imani McNeal and Gilmore hit back-to-back clutch jumpers moving UDM back up by 12 points at 55-43 with 3:05 left. RMU kept plugging away to trail by seven points but the Titans once again answered with a huge shot as Fleta Robles banked in a 3-ball at the 1:27 mark which sealed the deal increasing the lead back up to 10 points as the Titans advanced out of the first round for the first time in seven years.