Sophomore Shareta Brown had a game-high 32 points and a stifling Titan defense took control in the second half as the top-seeded Detroit women's basketball team advanced to the WBI Championship with a 71-68 victory over seconded-seeded Penn on Wednesday night at Calihan Hall.
Detroit will now host the championship game on Saturday at 3:00 p.m., against the winner of tomorrow's No. 6 South Dakota-No. 8 McNeese State match-up out of the west side of the bracket.
Brown also grabbed 10 rebounds for her 15th double-double of the year and the 27th in her career. She was 9-of-11 from the field, including 2-for-2 from behind the arc, and 12-of-13 from the free throw line.
Senior Yar Shayok posted her 33rd career double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds while senior Demeisha Fambro added 12 points.
The win was the 20th of the season for Detroit (20-13), who now has posted back-to-back 20-win campaigns for the first time since recording four-straight 20-win seasons from 1978-82. UDM also improved to a remarkable 15-1 at home on the year, already a new school record.
UDM led Penn (18-13) by two, 65-63, with just under 50 seconds remaining, but a pair of free throws from junior Senee Shearer and Fambro extended the lead to six, 69-63, but the Titans committed a foul on a Quakers' three-point attempt and after Kathleen Roche sank all three, it was a three-point contest with 14 seconds to go.
The Titans then hit a pair from the line, but Penn was able to convert on a fast-break layup to get within two, 70-68, with six seconds on the clock. The Quakers would foul on the inbounds and after Detroit split a pair at the charity stripe, Penn was able to secure the rebound and streak down the court for a last-second 3-pointer that would tie the game, but the ball just rimmed out for the UDM win.
Detroit shot 47.8%, while holding the Quakers to 34.5%. Detroit outrebounded Penn, 39-31, but the Ivy League school forced UDM into 19 turnovers and had a 21-7 advantage on points off turnovers.
In a game that featured 14 ties and eight lead changes, the Quakers led 36-35 a minute into the second half when UDM used a 16-1 run over the next seven minutes to jump out in front, 51-37. Brown was the difference maker scoring seven straight in that spurt and 13 of the Titans' 15 points, while the defense held Penn to 0-of-6 shooting with three turnovers.
Detroit maintained a double-digit lead – including 14 points on three occasions – for the next six minutes, until a Penn three trimmed the Titan advantage to 50-52 with 5:14 left. An offensive put back by Brown pushed the Titan lead back to 10, 62-52, but an 11-2 run by the Quakers cut that down to just two points, 65-53, with 46 seconds left.
The first half was the definition of back and forth as the game was tied 12 times with six lead changes. Brown and Shayok got Detroit on the board first with back-to-back layups, but Penn came back to take a three-point lead before a try by Shearer knotted it at 14-all, five minutes into the contest.
Penn then scored six straight to open its largest lead of the first half, 20-14, but Fambro quickly erased that with a pair of 3-pointers to tie it all up again at 20-20 at the 9:48 mark, and two-straight baskets by Brown made it a 10-0 run to put the Titans up, 24-20.
After the Quakers tied the game, 24-24, the teams exchanged leads for the rest of the stanza, with neither owning more than a two-point advantage and Detroit taking a 35-34 score into the half.
UDM shot 52.0% in the first half hitting 13-of-25 shots and 4-of-9 from behind the arc.
