GAMEDAY CENTRAL

DETROIT (11/17/13) – The University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team will stay on road when the Titans visit James Madison on Tuesday (Nov. 19) at the JMU Convocation Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET with live stats and video provided on the Titans Gameday Central page.

GAMEDAY CENTRAL
Titan fans can follow every UDM game this season through men's basketball GAMEDAY CENTRAL page located on the Titans Athletic Website that will keep fans one click away from all the action. This page will feature links for live stats (audio and video when applicable) as well as links for all the latest info while also making it easy to find the Titans on social media and to purchase photos and game tickets. The Game Day Central page also carries all the information on each opponent from who is leading the all-time series to who won the last game.

LAST OUTING
The UConn Huskies used a 35-9 run to close the first half en route to topping the Titans 101-55 Thursday night at Gampel Pavilion as part of the 2K Sports Classic benefiting the Wound Warrior Project.

The Titans led 17-13 with 12:03 left in the first half before UConn responded with a 21-2 run over the next seven minutes to take a 34-19 lead. Ugochukwu Njoku then responded with a dunk and a free throw to trim the lead to 13, before the Huskies closed the half with a 13-4 run, including a three-pointer at the horn from Ryan Boatright, to take a 48-26 lead into the locker room.

Freshman guard Matthew Grant led Detroit with a career-high 15 points, while junior forward Juwan Howard, Jr. added 14 points - 10 in the first half – with six rebounds. Senior Evan Bruinsma led the Titans with a team-high eight rebounds, while pitching in five points and two assists. Junior forward Patrick Onwenu was also productive off the bench with five points and seven rebounds.

No. 18/19 UConn (3-0) opened the game with a 6-2 run, off a pair of three-pointers from Omar Calhoun, before Howard scored six-straight points, followed by a three-pointer from Grant to give Detroit an 11-6 lead with 15:08 left. Howard scored the first eight points for the Titans for the third-straight game. After a basket from Boatright made the score 11-8, Grant responded with his second trifecta of the half to give the Titans their largest lead of the game 14-8 with 13:41 left. A 5-0 Huskies run then trimmed Detroit's lead to 14-13 with just less than 13 minutes remaining before Grant made three-straight free throws, after being fouled in the act of shooting, to put the Titans up 17-13.

ABOUT THE DUKES
JMU lost its season opener on the road against No. 24 Virginia 61-41 (Nov. 8), before picking a pair of wins over the weekend at the NIU Invitational. The Dukes grabbed their first win of the season against the host Northern Illinois 60-55 on Friday (Nov. 15), before topping San Jose State 79-66 on Sunday (Nov. 17). The Dukes only loss over the weekend came on Saturday to fellow Horizon Leaguer Milwaukee 77-66.

Ron Curry leads JMU in scoring with 12.3 points per game, while Charles Cooke and Andrey Semenov average 11.8 ppg. and 11.0 ppg., respectively.

SERIES WITH JMU
This will be just the second meeting between Detroit and James Madison, with the Titans leading the all-time series 1-0. Detroit took the first game 82-70 at Calihan Hall back in 2012 as part of the ESPN Sears BracketBusters.

CLEANING THE GLASS
Through the first three games of the 2013-14 season the Titans are averaging 45.7 rebounds per game, including 19.7 on the offensive glass, both are the best in the Horizon League. The 51 and 52 rebounds recorded in the first two games were the most in game for the Titans since grabbing 50 against Concordia on Nov. 18, 2011.

Just to note Detroit's school record for rebounds in one game is 77 set against Central Michigan on Jan. 30, 1960.

FAB TWO?
With the Juwan Howard, Jr., son of U-M great and Fab Five memeber Juwan Howard, being a co-captain of the Titans this year, it is just fitting that Detroit has a pair for freshman making a statement early. Jarod Williams began his collegiate career with back-to-back double digit scoring affairs with 11 points at South Alabama, followed by 12 against U-M Dearborn. By doing so Williams became the true Titan freshman to score in double figures in his first two collegiate games during the Coach McCallum Era.

Not to be out done was Williams' backcourt classmate Matthew Grant who has scored in double figures over the last two games with 10 points against U-M Dearborn and a team-high 15 points at No. 19 UConn.

Altogether the "Fab Two" have combine to average 17.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game. Williams is averaging 9.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game, while Grant is averaging 8.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and a team-high 2.7 assists per game. The 17.3 points per game by the talented backcourt is responsible for 24 percent of the Titans scoring this season.

BLOCK PARTY
The Titans have recorded 23 blocked shots through their first three games including 13 against U-M Dearborn. The 13 blocked shots are the most for the Titans since swatting 17 against Western Michigan in 1978.

ROAD TEST
The Titans will be on the road for the third time in four games and through the first two trips out of state the road hasn't been so kind. Detroit is 0-2 on the road to start the season and has been held to just 56.5 points per game, while its opponents are scoring a blistering 87.5 points per game. The Titans are only shooting 29.6 percent overall on the road, including 10.8 percent from downtown. Detroit has also missed from the charity stripe on the road only connecting on 23-of-36 (63.8 percent) free throw opportunities.

When you compare those numbers to what the Titans average at home and you can see what this team is capable of doing. At home Detroit is 1-0 and scored 106 points shooting 52.3 percent overall, including 43.5 from beyond the arc and 82.4 percent (28-of-34) for the charity stripe.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
Juwan Howard, Jr. opened his junior campaign with 18 points and 11 rebounds at South Alabama, before dropping in 22 points, while grabbing 10 boards against U-M Dearborn. Howard is the first Titan to open a season with back-to-back double-doubles since Eli Holman did in 2010.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW
The Titans welcome an impressive recruiting class of five talented student-athletes in Patrick Ackerman, Paris Bass, Matthew Grant, Patrick Onwenu and Jarod Williams to the roster this year, along with sophomore guard Carlton Brundidge, who was ineligible last season after transferring from U-M. Brundidge was a four-star recruit in both Rivals.com and Scout.com and was ranked 75th in the 2011 ESPN 100 coming out of Southfield High School.

HOWARD, BRUINSMA TEAM CAPTAINS
Detroit head coach Ray McCallum has announced that senior forward Evan Bruinsma along with junior forward Juwan Howard, Jr. have been selected as team captains for the 2013-14 season.

Both Bruinsma and Howard played in 32 games last year and bring a wealth of experience to share with all the new Titans.

MOVING FORWARD
Detroit has a core of student-athletes returning who either started or participated in more than 30 games last year, including forwards Evan Bruinsma and Juwan Howard, Jr. Bruinsma played in 32 games as a junior averaging 5.6 points and 4.3 rebounds, while Howard started the first 27 games of the 2012-13 season tallying 7.6 points and 3.2 rebounds.

The frontline also includes senior centers Ugochukwu Njoku and Olumide Solanke along with senior forward Jermaine Lippert who all saw playing time last year. Njoku appeared in all 33 games last season and finished with 20 blocked shots, while Lippert played in 28 games for the Titans last season averaging 1.1 points and 1.1 rebounds per game.

SENIOR DRIVEN
This season Detroit will look upon its four seniors Evan Bruinsma, Jermaine Lippert, Ugochukwu Njoku and Olumide Solanke for leadership. Last year the four combined to play in 100 games and averaged 8.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and recorded 39 blocked shots.

MEDIA PACKAGE ANNOUNCED
The announcement was made that men's basketball games will be back on the radio on 97.1 FM The Ticket and 1270 AM. The Titans will also have at least 18 games on WADL or Comcast 900, which doesn't include the games already announced to be televised on the ESPN Family of Networks. The women will also have games on WADL and Comcast along with other Olympic sports teams.

UP NEXT - 2K SPORTS CLASSIC - TICKETS
Detroit will return home to host the sub-regional round of the 2K Sports Classic benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project with three games in three nights against FAU, Toledo and Stony Brook. The Titans first game will be against FAU on Friday, Nov. 22 with tip-off scheduled at 7:00 p.m. at Calihan Hall. That game will be televised live on Comcast Sports 900 and streamed live online by HLN Detroit.

Detroit will then face Toledo on Saturday (Nov. 23) at 5:30 p.m., followed by Stony Brook on Sunday (Nov. 24). The Toledo game will be televised on live WADL TV 38, while the Stony Brook contest will be live on Comcast Sports 900. For more information on Titans basketball please visit their Gameday Central page.

Tickets for the 2K Sports Classic benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project at historic Calihan Hall are still available. For more information on season and general ticket information, click here or call the Detroit Ticket Office at (313) 993-1700.