AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (Ticker) -- Elena Tornikidou scored a career-high 18 points and Wendy Palmer added 12 and 10 rebounds as the Detroit Shock won a season opener for the first time in team history, 77-74 over the Sacramento Monarchs.

Rookie Edwina Brown, this year's third overall pick, made two free throws with 18 seconds left as the Shock opened a 74-71 lead. Sacramento's Ruthie Bolton-Holifield had a chance to tie but her 3-pointer missed and the Monarchs lost the ball out of bounds.

Tornikidou hit two free throws with 8.9 seconds left to give Detroit a 76-71 cushion. Ticha Penicheiro kept Sacramento in it as she nailed a 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds remaining.

Brown made one free throw with 1.2 seconds to play and the Monarchs could not get off a desperation shot at the buzzer.

"I wasn't nervous at all," Brown said. "I figure with 20 seconds left, if the coaches are comfortable with having me on the floor, then I'll be comfortable to hit the free throws. It's going to give us confidence that hopefully will snowball."

Tornikidou is seeing additional minutes at forward this season with Dominique Canty moving to shooting guard and Carla Porter staying in Australia to prepare for the Olympics.

"I've always known that if they trusted me to play, I could contribute," Tornikidou said through an interpreter. "When you put me on the court, I'll play well for you."

"A year ago, Elena and I had a bit of a communication problem," Detroit coach Nancy Lieberman-Cline said. "She doesn't speak English and I don't speak Russian. So I was uncomfortable putting her in the game. But not getting her minutes last year was my mistake and I can guarantee you she will play 30 minutes a game this year."

Brown finished with nine points and Astou Ndiaye-Diatta grabbed 12 rebounds for Detroit, which opened its third season. The Shock were the last team to begin their campaign and notched their third victory in four home games against the Monarchs.

Detroit held a 34-26 rebounding advantage and shot 49 percent (27-of-55) from the floor.

WNBA Most Valuable Player Yolanda Griffith scored 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting and Tangela Smith added 16 points for the Monarchs, who shot 45 percent (33-of-74) but was just 3-of-12 from 3-point range.

"It doesn't matter how many points I had. We lost and that's the bottom line," Griffith said. "The key is that they hit their free throws at the end of the game and we didn't. We have to learn from that and that's all mental."

"I thought we played a decent game, but not as well as Detroit," Sacramento coach Sonny Allen said. "They hit the big shots so they deserved to win. They shot better than we did and they outrebounded us, which really wasn't a surprise."

Sacramento held a 37-8 bench scoring edge in an Opening Night victory over Seattle on Wednesday but its reserves were outscored 25-6 tonight.