Gameday Central
Game Notes vs. IPFW
 
DETROIT (12/1/2014) -- The University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball team will finish its mini two-game road swing on Tuesday as the Titans head to the Hoosier State to battle the IPFW Mastodons. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. (EST) at the Gates Sports 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 (1-4) is coming off a tough loss at Niagara last Saturday and will look to end a three-game slide. Freshman Darianne Seward led the way with 12 points, while redshirt sophomore Rosanna Reynolds netted 10.
 
The Titan defense is currently third in the Horizon League in points allowed at 64.2 points per game, while also ranking second in free throw percentage at 72.3%.
 
Both Seward (12.6 ppg.) and Reynolds (12.2 ppg.) are in the top 10 in scoring in the HL, while sophomore Haleigh Ristovski is tied for the conference lead with a 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio.
 
IPFW (2-3) is coming off two-straight road losses falling at USC Upstate and Coastal Carolina, but is 2-0 at home with wins over Grace College and Evansville. The other setback on the year came in the season opener at Illinois.
 
After the game – the sixth for the Titans in 18 days – Detroit will have a bit of a break with its next action on Dec. 8 with Madonna visiting historic Calihan Hall.
 
DETROIT VS. IPFW
This is the ninth career meeting between Detroit and IPFW with the Titans leading the all-time series, 6-2. Last season, IPFW was victorious, 84-73, in the Motor City.
 
UDM is 3-1 on the road against IPFW, including an 88-58 triumph in 2012.
 
ABOUT THE MASTODONS
IPFW is 2-3 on the season and has dropped its last two games at USC Upstate (85-73) and at Coastal Carolina (90-63). The Mastodons have defeated Grace College (90-51) and Evansville (77-59) and have also fallen at Illinois (70-63).
 
Haley Seibert leads the team in scoring at 18.4 points per game and is also tied for the team lead with 2.4 assists per game. She is shooting 45.0% from the field and 38.2% from behind the arc on the year.
 
KeShyra McCarver tops the team on the boards at 7.0 per night to go with 12.2 ppg., while Rachel Rinehart is tallying 7.8 ppg., 4.6 rpg., and 2.4 apg.
 
UP NEXT
Detroit will have some time off before its next game as the Titans return home to host Madonna on Dec. 8 before traveling to Toledo for a pair of games on Dec. 13-14.
 
VERSUS THE HOOSIER STATE
Detroit has done a fine job when it comes to taking on teams from Indiana as UDM is 75-42 all-time against schools from the Hoosier State, including 9-6 since the start of the 2011-12 season.
 
AGAINST THE SUMMIT
With Oakland University joining the Horizon League last season, IPFW is the only current member of the Summit League that Detroit has ever faced.
 
BIG TIME DEFENSE
The Titans have played some tough defense to start the 2014-15 season, holding teams to just 64.2 points per game, down from last season's 80.5 ppg.
 
In the Horizon League, Detroit is currently third in scoring defense and fifth in steals (8.0).
 
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.
 
MAKING TEAMS PAY
Making free throws is all about taking advantage of the free ones and the Titans have done that this season.
 
UDM is currently second in the Horizon League in free throws at 72.3% (60-of-83).
 
HELPING OUR CAUSE
With a strong group of guards, you would expect that Detroit would be able to take care of the ball and create a lot of assists and the Titans have done just that.
 
Detroit is fourth in the Horizon League in assists at 14.2 per game as well as third in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.0). The red, white and blue is one of just three teams in the league to have more assists than turnovers on the year, and has committed a season-low nine turnovers in each of the last two games.
 
The Titans also finished with 22 assists against Marygrove in their home opener on Nov. 16, the most by Detroit since it recorded 20 against Eastern Michigan last year.
 
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.
 
URBANICK FINDING HER STROKE
Freshman Nicole Urbanick was 7-of-15 (46.6%) from the field in the first three games, but the rookie has really showed her long range shooting ability in the last two contests.
 
Against St. Bonaventure, she was 4-of-8 from the field with three 3-pointers and finished with a season-high 11 points and she is coming off another game with three treys ending with nine points at Niagara.
 
On the season, she is averaging 7.6 points per game, while shooting 45.2% (14-of-31).
 
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 leading the team in scoring and is ninth in the Horizon League at 12.6 ppg.
 
Seward is also tied for fourth in the HL in free throw percentage (81.5%) connecting on 22-of-27, tied for the most free throws as well as tied for the fourth most attempts among conference peers.
 
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-straight double-digit scoring effort and fourth of the season with 10 points at Niagara.
 
She led Detroit with 15 points at Ohio, had 12 against St. Bonaventure and started the year netting 17 points at Michigan.      
 
On the year, she is currently second on the team - and 10th in the Horizon League - with 12.2 ppg., while registering 2.6 apg.
 
Reynolds is also tied for fourth in the HL in three-point field goals per game (2.2). With her 11 three-point baskets, she is well on her way of topping the 25 she had as a freshman.
 
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 five games, including a team-high nine rebounds, one shy of her career high, at Michigan, and is eighth in the conference in boards at 7.0 per game.
 
She has tied her career high with five assists three times this year (at Niagara and against Marygrove and St. Bonaventure) and is leading the team and ranked fourth in the HL at 4.0 assists per game.
 
Her decision-making is never in doubt as she is currently tied for the conference lead with a 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio (20 A, 8 TO), and that is after recording a 2.7 mark (47 A, 17 TO) as a freshman.
 
ELLISHA IN DOUBLE DIGITS
Senior Ellisha Crosby was back in double figures with 12 points at Ohio and 16 against St. Bonaventure.
 
She has now played in 17 career games for the Titans and has scored in double digits 14 times.
 
In her Titan career, Crosby is tallying 15.1 ppg., including 9.4 ppg., this year.
 
COACH RAD LOOKING FOR A RECORD
Head coach Autumn Rademacher '97 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.
 
SEASON #38 IN THE MOTOR CITY
The 2014-15 season marks the 38th year of Titan women's basketball hoops at the University of Detroit Mercy as the red, white and blue have posted a 549-528 (.510) record in its first 37 seasons.
 
Detroit is also in its 35th season as a member of the Horizon League and is the eldest member in the conference by 14 years over Cleveland State, Green Bay, Milwaukee, UIC, and Wright State, who all joined in 1994 with the Titans entering in 1980.
 
In its history, Detroit has won four postseason tournaments claiming the State-Large College Tournament Championship in 1979, 1980, 1981 as well as the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) in 2013.
 
AVOIDING INJURIES
Redshirt Sophomore Rosanna Reynolds is back after missing all of last season with a knee injury suffered early in the third game of the season at Western Michigan. Along with Reynolds, senior Ellisha Crosby is back after she missed the final 18 games with a leg injury.
 
The 2013-14 season saw six other Titans miss games due to injuries.
 
All told, the injured Titans missed a total of 70 games on the season and with that, UDM had to use 19 different starting line-ups.