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DETROIT, Mich.--  Detroit used a solid team effort to dispatch Loyola, 90-69, in the first round of the Horizon League Tuesday night at Calihan Hall.  Six Titans were in double figures scoring, led by Chase Simon's 19-point effort. 

Simon was the hot hand early on, scoring all of Detroit's first nine points as the Titans (17-15) took the lead on the junior's ninth point in the run and never relinquished it.   The lead would balloon to as many as 13 in the opening stanza on an Eli Holman layup and the Detroit offense moved the ball well and the defense was efficient in the first 20 minutes.  At the break, the Titans enjoyed a 36-27 advantage thanks to silencing Loyola's leading scorer, Geoff McCammon to just 1-of-8 shooting in the first half.

Loyola (16-15) sliced the deficit to seven early in the second half.  The Ramblers were within striking range on several different occasions, but each time the challenge was met with another Titan answering the call.   After McCammon's triple made it a 55-49 Detroit lead, eight straight Detroit points followed with buckets from LaMarcus Lowe book-ending points from Simon and Jason Calliste.  The final play in the sequence was a thunderous two-handed dunk by Lowe that left little indecision to who was in control of the game. 

Later, the Titans rattled-off another nine straight points, punctuated by a Ray McCallum jam that pushed the lead above 20 points and Detroit had its third win over Loyola this season.  The Titans encore to the impressive first half was a second half that saw them shoot 63 percent from the floor and rack-up a season-best (for a half) 54 points.

Simon finished the night 6 of 10 from the field and a perfect 6 of 6 from the free-throw line.  Calliste had 14 points and was 8 of 8 from the charity stripe helping Detroit make 25 of 29 as a team.  McCallum had a solid game with 16 points, six rebounds and six assists.  Nick Minnerath had a dozen points and seven rebounds while Chris Blake added 11 points and Holman etched 10 points and seven boards.

Ben Averkamp led Loyola with 15 points while newly-annointed Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year Geoff McCammon was held to 2 of 16 shooting (11 points).

UDM will now move on to Milwaukee, Wis. for the quarterfinal round Friday night against fourth-seeded Valparaiso, who defeated Youngstown State in the first round Tuesday.

Notes:  Tuesday's win gives Detroit a 5-0 record in home games in the Horizon League tournament since the new format (2002-03) ... Detroit had not had six players in double figures in a game this season until Tuesday ... Simon's second free-throw make at the 3:41 mark of the second half gave him 19 points for the game and exactly 1,000 for his collegiate career (98 at Central Michigan, 902 at Detroit).