Gameday Central
Game Notes vs. Niagara
 
DETROIT (11/28/2014) -- Turkey day has passed and now its back to business for the Titans as the University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball team will load up the bus and head through Canada to upstate New York to face Niagara on Saturday.
 
Game time is set for 6:00 p.m., at the Gallagher Center.
 
Fans can follow every Detroit 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. 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.
 
Detroit (1-3) showed great resilience last week as the Titans cut a 22-point deficit down to just three, but just could not come out ahead against St. Bonaventure. Detroit had three players in double figures with senior Ellisha Crosby leading the way with a season-best 16 points. Freshman Nicole Urbanick added a season-high 11 and sophomore Haleigh Ristovski had a fine game with nine points, eight rebounds and five assists.
 
Redshirt sophomore Rosanna Reynolds and freshman Darianne Seward currently are tied for the team lead in scoring at 12.8 points per game, while Ristovski tops the squad with 7.5 rebounds a night.
 
After the game, Detroit will stay on the road as the Titans visit Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Tuesday, Dec. 2, for a match-up with IPFW. UDM will then return home hosting Madonna on Dec. 8.
 
DETROIT VS. NIAGARA
This is the first career meeting between the two programs, located roughly 250 miles apart from each other and just about a four and a half hour drive through Canada.
 
ABOUT THE PURPLE EAGLES
Niagara opened the season with three-straight losses, but the Purple Eagles picked up their first win of the season on Wednesday going on the road and defeating Binghamton, 63-52.
 
The game on Saturday will be the home opener for Niagara as the Purple Eagles have played all four of their games on the road, including an 83-61 decision at Youngstown State.
 
Junior Sylvia Maxwell leads the team in scoring at 12.7 ppg., and is tied for the team lead with 3.7 apg. Senior Meghan McGuinness is second on the team in scoring at 10.8 ppg., while senior Donisha Watson is tallying 6.3 ppg., and a team-best 6.8 rpg.
 
Niagara is averaging 60.5 ppg., while giving up 69.5.
 
Kendra Faustin is in her ninth season as head coach of the Niagara program.
 
DETROIT-NIAGARA CONNECTION
They may have never faced each other on the court, but the Titans and Purple Eagles do have a coaching connection in their history.           
 
Mary Roickle was the second head coach in Titan history posting a 46-20 record in her three years on the sidelines from 1980-83. She led the Titans to a 23-7 record in her first season - along with a State Large College Tournament - and 20-7 mark in her second year.
 
Roickle - a 1975 Niagara graduate - arrived in the Motor City after serving as head coach of her alma mater for four years (1976-80), recording an 84-19 record. She also guided the Purple Eagles to the post-season in all four years.
 
BIG TIME DEFENSE
The Titans have played some tough defense to start the 2014-15 season, holding teams to just 62.5 points per game and a .380 field-goal percentage. That is down from last season's 80.5 ppg., and .430 field-goal percentage.
 
Detroit had one of its best defensive games in school history in defeating Marygrove, 88-46, in the home opener on Nov. 16.
 
The 46 points allowed was the fewest since Detroit downed Youngstown State at home, 62-48, during the 2012-13 campaign.
 
The 25.0% (16-of-64) shooting by Marygrove was the lowest UDM has held a team since Milwaukee's 22.8% on Mar. 2, 2013, while the 16 made field goals was the fewest by a visiting team since that YSU contest.
 
Meanwhile in a close setback at Ohio - a team that was averaging 97.5 ppg., through its first two games against Division I competition - the Titans held the Bobcats to just 60 points and 33.3% shooting (19-of-57), including 24.2% (8-of-33) in the first half.
 
URBANICK FINDING HER STROKE
Freshman Nicole Urbanick was 7-of-15 (46.6%) from the field in the first three games, but the rookie really showed her shooting ability her last time out.
 
Against St. Bonaventure, she was 4-of-8 from the field with three 3-pointers and finished with a season-high 11 points.
 
On the season, she is averaging 7.3 points per game, while shooting 47.8% (11-of-23).
 
GLASS WORK
UDM outrebounded Marygrove, 58-30, in the home opener on Nov. 16. The 58 rebounds was the most by the Titans since they grabbed 70 against Central Michigan on Feb. 9, 1980.
 
GETTING TO 70
The Titans are 50-19 when they score 70 or more points as well as 18-5 when they score 80 or more under head coach Autumn Rademacher. UDM has also eclipsed 90 seven times under Coach Rad, with a season-high 96 against Eastern Michigan last year.
 
LITTLE D BRINGS BIG O
Freshman Darianne Seward might have been making her first collegiate start in her first career game at Michigan, but you would never know it by the way the rookie played.
 
The 5-4 guard from Ohio ended the day with a game-high 19 points - 17 in the first half alone - along with three rebounds, three assists and a steal.
 
She had eight points in the first six minutes and 11 in the first eight to guide UDM to an 11-point halftime lead against the Wolverines.
 
The 19 points in a collegiate debut was the most by a Titan true freshman since the 2011-12 season and the most by a Titan true freshman guard since Titan Hall-Of-Famer and the school's all-time leading scorer Cassandra Pack netted 23 at home against Bowling Green to open the 1983-84 campaign.
 
She is currently tied for the team lead with 12.8 points per game and also tops the squad in free throws going 20-for-24 (83.3%).
 
HALEIGH'S SUCH A CROOK
Sophomore Haleigh Ristovski came away with a career-high five steals in the season opener at Michigan, besting her previous high of three last year against Lawrence Tech.
 
I THINK SHE'S BACK
Redshirt sophomore Rosanna Reynolds looks to be back in form after posting her third double-digit scoring outing of the season with 10 points against St. Bonaventure last week.
 
She led Detroit with 15 points at Ohio - including two big 3-pointers down the stretch as UDM rallied late - and started the year netting 17 points at Michigan.
           
On the year, she is currently tied for the team lead with 12.8 ppg., and is also registering 2.8 apg.
 
ALL-AROUND GAME
Sophomore Haleigh Ristovski continues to show her full basketball skills this season on both the offensive and defensive end of the floor.
 
She might not be the typical frontcourt player, but she has grabbed at least eight rebounds in three of UDM's four games, including a team-high nine rebounds, one shy of her career high, at Michigan.
 
She has tied her career high with five assists twice this year against Marygrove and St. Bonaventure, and has also scored at least nine points in three games with nine at Ohio and against St. Bonaventure and a season-high 12 versus Marygrove.
 
On the season, she is leading Detroit in rebounding (7.5) and assists (4.7) to go with 8.3 points and 2.0 steals.
 
CROSBY BACK IN DOUBLE DIGITS
After averaging just 7.0 points in her first two games, senior Ellisha Crosby has been back in double digits in her last two outings with 12 points at Ohio and 16 against St. Bonaventure.
 
She is averaging 14.0 ppg, in her last two games with a pair of 3-pointers in both.
 
She has now played in 16 career games for the Titans and has scored in double digits 14 times.
 
In her Titan career, Crosby is tallying 15.8 ppg., including 10.8 ppg., this year.
 
COACH RAD LOOKING FOR A RECORD
Head coach Autumn Rademacher has recorded 90 victories and is currently in third place in Detroit history in wins, just three away from the school record held by her coach in college Fred Procter (93, 1990-96) and one away from DeWayne Jones (91, 1983-90).
 
It is not like Coach Rademacher took over a top of the line program as Detroit was coming off back-to-back last-place finishes and just 11 total wins from 2006-08.
 
In her first six years, Detroit has recorded three winning seasons, a pair of 20-win campaigns, five years with a conference tournament victory, a trip to the WNIT in 2012 - the first postseason action for UDM since 1997 - and the school's first postseason title since 1981 when the Titans won the WBI in 2013.
 
KEEPING POSSESSION
Detroit turned it over a season-low nine times its last time out against St. Bonaventure.
 
UDM has lowered its turnovers in just about every game this season going from 19 on the road at Michigan in the season opener to 15 versus Marygrove, 16 at Ohio and the nine against the Bonnies.