MILWAUKEE -- Brandon Cotton scored 26 points and James Thues 13 to lead Detroit to a 61-55 victory Saturday over Wisconsin-Green Bay in a Horizon League Championship semifinal game.
The Titans (14-15) won their last four games including a 61-48 quarterfinal victory Friday night over Wright State.
Green Bay (17-11) was led by Brandon Morris with 17 points, all in the second half as he single-handedly kept the Phoenix in the game.
Although the Phoenix finished second in the conference in the regular season, they lost their last four games of the season.
Cotton and Thues hit back-to-back 3-pointers to even the game at 36-36 and get the Titans back in the game after they had trailed since late in the first half. With 5:17 left, Cotton scored to break the third tie of the half and put the Titans up 42-40.
After Morris scored his 11th consecutive point for Green Bay to pull the Phoenix within two at 49-47, Cotton made a basket and a pair of free throws on a technical foul on the Green Bay bench to make it 53-47 with just under a minute to play.
In the last 27 seconds, Cotton and Ben Green both made two free throws and Ethan Shaw four to preserve the victory.
Green Bay led 31-24 at the half. Trailing 13-11 after Cotton had scored six consecutive points, the Phoenix went on an 8-2 run to take a 21-15 lead with 5:33 left to play. Javier Mendiburu ended Green Bay's run with his second basket of the scoring surge.
The Titans pulled to within one at 24-23 on a basket by Torvoris Baker but Flores scored five consecutive points to push Green Bay's lead back to six points.
Detroit has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1999.
