Game Notes at Valparaiso .

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VALPARAISO, Ind.—With the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Horizon League Championship all locked up, the Detroit women's basketball team will look to end the year on a high note as the Titans face Valparaiso on Saturday in the regular season finale. Game time is set for 1:05 p.m. (EST) at the Athletics Recreation Center (ARC).

Fans can catch all the action on the Horizon League Network as well as with a live stats feed through CBS Sports Gametracker. Updates throughout the game can always be found by following the Titans on Twitter.

The Titans earned the second seed in the conference tournament with their win over Butler and Wright State falling to the Crusaders. UDM is now 17-12 on the year and 13-4 in league play as it searches for its first 18-win season since the 1999-00 campaign. Since starting the year 0-6, the Titans are 17-6 in their last 23 games and 16-4 in their last 20 contests.

The clinching of second place in the league also means that the Titans have potentially set themselves up for postseason play in 2012. The Horizon League is one of 33 conferences that earn an automatic bid to the WNIT, which is given to the team highest in the standings that does not go to the NCAA Tournament. While Detroit will do all it can to capture its third HL title and with rival Green Bay nationally ranked and primed to receive an at-large bid if it doesn't win the conference tournament, the Titans are in position to get the league's automatic bid to the WNIT. 

It was not pretty at times, but the Titans were able to down Butler on the road, 57-52, on Thursday. The defense was the key as Detroit held Butler to 2-of-18 shooting to start the game and just 29.3% (17-of-58) from the field in the contest. It was the eighth time this season that UDM has held a team to less than 20 field goals, the fourth time it saw an opponent shoot less than 30% and the 11th time it has forced a foe to score under 60 points.

Freshman Shareta Brown leads the team in scoring (17.0) and rebounding (8.8) still and with her 6-of-8 effort against the Bulldogs, she raised her field goal percentage (where she was eighth in the nation) to 56.4%. Sophomore Senee Shearer nailed three more 3-pointers and is third in the Horizon League with 66 on the year and second on the Titans in scoring at 11.5 points per game, while senior Jalesa Jones tops the conference in assists with 4.9 per night. Already the school record holder, Jones is just two assists away from reaching the 500-mark for her career.

Valparaiso has been forced to deal with a short bench the whole season due to injuries and enters the game at 9-19, 5-12 in the Horizon League. The Crusaders have won two of their last four and four of their last seven, including helping the Titans clinch the No. 2 seed by beating Wright State on Thursday, 70-60.

THE DETROIT-VALPARAISO SERIES
Detroit defeated Valparaiso, 68-52, at Calihan Hall earlier in the year as the Titans have now won six of the last seven meetings in the series. Overall, UDM leads the match-up, 9-5.

Detroit is 4-2 on the road, but were picked off by the Crusaders, 57-46, at the ARC last season before rebounding to post a 57-50 victory at home in the first round of the Horizon League Championship. 

ABOUT THE CRUSADERS
Valparaiso enters the game at 9-19, 5-12 in the Horizon League, but the Crusaders have really done all they can with a short roster. For most of the year, they have had anywhere from six to nine active players and regularly play just seven in games.

VU has won four of its last seven games and is coming off a 70-60 win over Wright State in a game that helped the Titans clinch the No. 2 seed.

Tabitha Gerardot leads the team in scoring (13.1), while Ashley Varner is second in scoring at 11.0 ppg., while topping the team with 9.1 rebounds per game.

Valparaiso is last in the league in scoring at 53.0 points per game, but second in points allowed giving up just 57.6.

GOOD NUMBERS VS. VALPO
Senior Lauren Allen is tallying 7.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists per games in eight career outings versus Valparaiso. She has four double-digit scoring outings and a pair of games with five or more assists. In the first meeting, she tallied 11 points and five helpers.

Junior Yar Shayok is averaging 7.6 points and 9.8 rebounds in eight career games, with three double-digit rebounding contests and a double-double Senior Jalesa Jones is averaging 6.2 points and 4.8 assists also in eight career games against Valparaiso. She has dished out five or more assists in four of those contests.

POSTSEASON PLAY ON THE HORIZON?
With the Titans clinching the second seed in the upcoming Horizon League Championship, they also put themselves in great position for their first postseason tournament since 1997.

Obviously, if the Titans win the conference tournament, they will be heading to the NCAA Tournament, but if they lose, they could very well end up in the WNIT for the first time in their history.

The 64-team Postseason WNIT is composed of 33 automatic bids from each established conference. That automatic bid is given to the highest-finishing team in its conference's regular-season standings that is not selected for the NCAA Tournament.

With Green Bay ranked 11th in the country, it is almost assured an automatic bid to the big dance even if it does not win the Horizon League Championship, which would mean that the Titans could earn that bid for postseason play.

TITANS CLINCH #2 SEED &HOME PLAYOFF GAME
With its 57-52 victory at Butler combined with Wright State's loss at Valparaiso, the Titans clinched the second seed in the Horizon League Championship.

Due to the win at Green Bay a few weeks ago, Detroit owns the tiebreaker over the Raiders if the teams should decide to flip their Thursday results on Saturday.

With that said, Detroit will host a Horizon League Championship quarterfinal's game on Wednesday, Mar. 7, at 7 p.m., against whoever comes out of the 7-10 match-up.

While the top six seeds have already been clinched, UDM will play either Cleveland State, Milwaukee, Valparaiso or Youngstown State in its first HL Tournament game.

TITANS VICTORY TOTAL RISING
With its victory over Butler, the Titans have now posted 17 wins on the season, the second time in head coach Autumn Rademacher's four years that they have won 17 games.

It is also the third time in the last 11 seasons that UDM has recorded 17 wins.

The last time Detroit had 18 victories was during the 1999-00 season when the red, white and blue went 18-9.

13th HORIZON LEAGUE WIN
Detroit also has 13 Horizon League wins on the year, the fourth time that UDM has had at least 13 wins in conference play.

Detroit was 13-3 during the 1995-96 campaign and was 14-2 in 1996-97, head coach Autumn Rademacher's last season as a player.

The Titans were 14-4 in 2009-10, coach Rademacher's second season at the helm - a year where she earned HL Coach of the Year honors.

LUCKY NUMBERS
Detroit is 7-0 on the year when sophomore Senee Shearer nets at least 20 points in a game. UDM is 6-0 on the season and 23-8 when senior Lauren Allen scores in double figures and 21-6 all time when she dishes out five or more assists.

The Titans are also 12-4 on the year and 34-20 when senior Jalesa Jones has five or more assists.

ANOTHER RECORD BITES THE DUST
Senior Jalesa Jones was not the only Titan breaking a record in the win over Cleveland State on Feb. 23.

Freshman Shareta Brown broke her second Titan freshman mark of the season passing Titan Hall-Of-Famer Cassandra Pack for the most points in a season by a freshman. Brown now has 492 points, moving ahead of Pack's 453 she totaled during the 1983-84 campaign.

Back on Jan. 7 in a win at Loyola, Brown broke the freshman single-game scoring record with 31 points.

The previous high was 30 by Michelle DeHaan on Jan. 15, 1994, at Evansville.

Brown currently leads the team in scoring at 17.0 ppg., and if she keeps that up, she will be the first true freshman to lead the Titans in scoring since Autumn Rademacher did it with 15.2 ppg., during the 1993-94 season.

SHEARER MAKING TEAMS PAY
Sophomore Senee Shearer is 52-of-62 from the free throw line on the year, hitting at 83.9%. That number currently stands fourth in Titan history in a season and if she had enough to qualify (she is averaging 2.1 free throws per game and the HL qualifier is 2.5), she would be leading the Horizon League.

SHEARER IN THE TOP 10
The long range shooting of sophomore Senee Shearer not only has her among the league leaders, but also among the best in Titan history.

On the year, Shearer is third in the HL with 66 3-pointers as well as third in the conference with 2.3 per game - which also has her 63rd in the nation.

She hit a career-best six 3-pointers against Youngstown State on Feb. 25 and is now just one in back of Shari Hill's fourth-place mark of 67 in 2001 and three shy of Lindsey Pasquinzo's third-place effort of 69 in 2005.

ALLEN IN THE TOP 10
Senior Lauren Allen now has 334 career helpers and is in ninth place in the school history.
Next up on the list for her to pass is Katie Solner at 348.