GAMEDAY CENTRAL         Game Notes

DETROIT (3/8/2013) -- For the second-straight season, the Detroit women's basketball team will end the regular season in Valparaiso, Ind., as the Titans get ready for an early afternoon tilt with the Crusaders on Saturday. Game time is set for 1:05 p.m. (ET) at the ARC.

Also for the second-straight year, Titan fans can come see the men and women battle Valpo as the men's squad will play in the Horizon League Championship semifinals on Saturday beginning at 6:00 p.m. (ET).

The women's game can be seen live online on the Horizon League Network and there will also be live stats for this contest. Titan fans can follow every UDM game this season through the women'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.

UDM downed Valparaiso, 70-61, on Dick Vitale Court in Calihan Hall back on Feb. 9. Junior Senee Shearer had five 3-pointers and a game-high 17 points, while sophomore Shareta Brown tallied 12 points and six rebounds.

Valparaiso will be looking to end a five-game slide as the Crusaders enter the game with a 9-19 record, 4-11 in league play. The Crusaders last played on Monday falling to Youngstown State. Valpo is currently slated to play in the opening round game, but with a win, the Crusaders can jump to the seven or even the six seed.

Tabitha Gerardot is the main offensive catalyst with 15.0 points - seventh in the league – and 9.2 rebounds per game - third in the conference. She has 10 double-doubles on the year with three 30-point performances. Gina Lange is second on the team in scoring with 9.2 ppg., and is averaging 5.5 rpg., while Shaquira Scott is tallying 8.9 ppg.

The Crusaders are last in the HL in offense at 61.7 ppg., and is sixth in the conference allowing 69.4. They are eighth in the league in three-point field-goal percentage (30.2%), but rank third in rebounding (40.0).

After the game, Detroit will get ready for the Horizon League Championship Quarterfinals, where it will host a game on Wednesday, Mar. 13, at 7:00 p.m. UDM's opponent is still to be determined.

THE DETROIT-VALPARAISO SERIES
UDM downed Valparaiso, 70-61, at home back on Feb. 9 and has now won four in a row over the Crusaders to take an 11-5 lead in the all-time series. The Titans have won eight of the last nine in the series after Valpo claimed three-straight wins.

Detroit is 5-2 at the ARC in its history, including a 48-42 victory in the regular season finale last year.

A 3 OR 4?
Detroit already knows that it has clinched a top-four finish in the standings and will host a home playoff game in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, Mar. 13, at 7:00 p.m.

The only thing left unsettled is if UDM will be a three or four seed and that is completely in the hands of the Titans. A win or a Loyola loss will give Detroit the No. 3 seed. The only way the red, white and blue will not get the third seed is if it losses and Loyola beats UIC.

In terms of who Detroit will play, these are how some of the other seeds can turn out.

Wright State currently has the No. 5 seed at 6-10, but the Raiders can fall to six if UIC wins beats Loyola due to a tiebreaker with a win over Detroit or even seven in a three-way tie with Milwaukee and UIC as that would mean the Panthers would get the five with a win over Green Bay and UIC the six because of a win over Detroit.

A four-way tie at 5-11 could develop for seeds 6 through 9 between Cleveland State, Milwaukee, UIC and Valparaiso. That would mean that the Titans would have lost to the Crusaders and UIC fell to Loyola giving UDM a four seed and a match-up with Wright State.

In that four-way tie, Milwaukee would be the six, Cleveland State the seven, UIC the eight and Valpo the nine.

Green Bay has already clinched the top spot, while Youngstown State will be No. 2.

DOMINATING THE BOARDS
The Titans absolutely owned the glass against Milwaukee on Mar. 2, winning the battle of the boards by an unprecedented +25 margin, 51-26, and then came back to win the battle of the boards by 18 over Youngstown State, 40-22.

In the last two games, Detroit owns a +43 rebound margin.

The +25 against the Panthers was the biggest margin in rebounds by UDM since a +25, 56-31, effort against Bowling Green last season.

Detroit has now outrebounded its opponents in 21 of its 27 games - including 10 times by double digits - and currently owns a +6.8 rebounding margin, good for first in the Horizon League and 30th in the nation.

Some other games in which UDM dominated the boards included a game against #6/7 Penn State (46-31), versus Canisius (44-28), WMU (49-36), Lourdes (42-25), and Madonna (48-26).

Last season, Detroit won the battle of the boards in 23 of its 34 games, including 11 times by a double-digit margin.

HEATING UP
After being held to just eight points against Green Bay, sophomore Shareta Brown has come back with back-to-back double-doubles in her last two games.

She now has 12 double-doubles on the year and 24 in her career.

In the last two games, she is averaging 17.0 ppg., and 11.5 rpg., while shooting 12-of-17 (70.6%) from the field.

OFFENSIVE EFFICIENCY
Detroit shot 52.4% from the field against Youngstown State, the sixth time this year that the Titans have been above 50.0%.

UDM set its season high with 62.9% against Lourdes earlier in the year and also shot 60.0% at IPFW.

BACK-TO-BACK WINNING SEASONS
Detroit is 16-11 on the year and the win against Youngstown State its last time out clinched its second straight winning season.

The Titans posted their first 20-win season since 1997 last year and now have back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2001 (17-12) and 2002 (16-14). 

Under Coach Rademacher, UDM has had two winning seasons in the last three years after having just one in its previous seven.

50 BELOW
The Titans have held their last two opponents to under 50 points (Milwaukee-40, Youngstown State-48) with the defense limiting the competition to 25.5% shooting (28-of-100) with 22 turnovers.

The last time UDM held two-straight foes to under 50 was last season when it defeated Valparaiso 48-42 in the season finale and then cruised past Cleveland State, 79-43, in the HL quarterfinals.

The last time Detroit went three straight games without allowing its opponent to score more than 50 was during the 2003-04 season as the Titans held Milwaukee to 49, UIC to 47 and Butler to 49.

OFFENSE WINS GAMES, DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Detroit is currently third in the Horizon League allowing 63.7 ppg., and second holding opponents to just 38.1% shooting.

UDM is coming off a game in which it held Youngstown State to 28.3% (15-of-53) and that came after allowing a season-low 40 points, 22.8% shooting and just 13 field goals against Milwaukee.

The 40 points allowed was the fewest to a Division I squad since the Titans defeated Loyola, 49-34, back in 2005. In 2010, Detroit crushed NAIA-member Marygrove, 68-27.

The 13 field goals and 22.8% were also the lowest since holding Cleveland State to 23.6% (13-of-55) in a 79-43 victory in last year's HL Quarterfinals.

SOME WINNING NUMBERS
Detroit is 14-2 this year when leading at the half and 16-0 when it is leading with five minutes left.

The Titans are also 13-1 when recording more assists in a game and 15-2 when a player leads or ties for the game high in scoring.

BROWN TOP 10 IN THE NATION
In the latest NCAA stats, released on Monday, sophomore Shareta Brown continues to be among the nation's leaders in scoring and field-goal percentage.

Brown is currently fifth in field-goal percentage hitting 57.5%. She is also 14th in the nation in scoring at 20.5 ppg.

The only Titan to ever lead the nation in a statistical category was Brigid Mulroy back in 2010 as she was first in three-point field-goal percentage (50.5%).

Brown was fifth in the NCAA in field-goal percentage (55.9%) last season.

OTHER NATIONAL RANKINGS
UDM has two players among the top 80 in rebounding as sophomore Shareta Brown is 75th with 9.2 per night, while senior Yar Shayok is 77th pulling down 9.1 per game.

Also, freshman Rosanna Reynolds is 55th with a 1.79 assist-to-turnover ratio and 98th handing out 4.2 assists per game.

As a team, Detroit is 15th in the country in field-goal percentage (44.7%), 27th in scoring (71.2), 25th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.07), 33rd in rebounding margin (+6.3), 52nd in assists (15.1) and 79h in scoring margin (+6.8). 

The Titans are also top 100 in turnovers per game (39th – 14.2) and 69th in three-point field goals per game (6.0).

CAN SHE KEEP IT AT 20?
Sophomore Shareta Brown is currently averaging 20.5 points per game and if she were to finish averaging in the 20's, she would be just the second Titan to do that.

Right now, Cassandra Pack is the only player in school history to average 20 in a year as she tallied 22.2 ppg., in 1986-87.

A RUDE HOST
UDM is now 11-1 at home this season - averaging 77.8 ppg - with a +19.3 scoring margin.

Detroit has also won 11 games at Calihan Hall for the second-straight season, a number that is tied for the third most wins at home in school history behind three 12-win campaigns and a perfect 13-0 mark during the 1986-87 season.

THE DEEP ASSASSIN
Junior Senee Shearer has seen 40 of her 50 field goals on the year come from behind the three-point line (80.0%), with four games already that have seen her nail five triples in a game. Shearer has played in just 13 games after returning from a torn ACL suffered in last year's Horizon League Championship.

In her career, 121 of her 188 field goals have been 3-pointers (64.3%) with 12 career games of four or more and seven games of at least five treys, with her career high set at six last year at home against Youngstown State.

CHASING HISTORY, AND EACH OTHER
Senior Yar Shayok and sophomore Shareta Brown are both 1,000 point scorers that rank in the top 15 in school history, but in the last few games, they have flip-flopped spots on the Titan scoring list.

With 19 points against Youngstown State, Brown surged past Shayok and into 14th place on the all-time scoring list with 1,164 points, six more than Shayok's 1,158.

Next up on the list for the duo to pass is Mandy Chandler's (1987-91) 1,181 points, which each can do with 17 and 24 points, respectively.

WINNING BY NUMBERS
Eleven of the Titans' 16 wins on the season have been by double digits as they are third in the HL with a + 7.1 scoring margin.

In fact, UDM's 51-point win (101-50) over Lourdes on Dec. 10 was the biggest margin of victory since the Titans rolled past Wayne State by 70, 115-45, on Jan. 2, 1986, which is still the school record for the largest margin of victory.