Hi,
Not sure what the default was in 1.14 but that selection mode in 1.18 should do exactly what you describe. Have a look here for the selection modes - OpenUI5 SDK - Demo Kit.
In my experience, "SingleSelectMaster" is used for master detail layouts where you see both at the same time and wouldn't necessarily want to do selection of the same detail page multiple times.
For phone however, or scenarios where you want the selection to lead onto the detail, the mode "None" is used to prevent the selection "sticking" and the user not being able to select the same row again after navigating back.
This is usually done with a "device" model bound to the List's mode property. Have a look at the source code behind the sap.m.Explored app demo (Component.js file) to see this in action.
Additionally, use the "selectionChange" event rather than "select" or "press" and "select" is deprecated and "press" (on the List) won't work as you want it to!
I am not sure on your use case for persisting selections, as standard these should be "MultiSelect" or "SingleSelect" modes
Hope this helps,
Oli