From the Detroit Mercy athletics website:
DETROIT — Senior graduate Antoine Davis nearly hit a triple-double and finished with a game-high 38 points as the University of Detroit Mercy men’s basketball team played Tuesday in an 81-68 win over Purdue Fort Wayne at the Barbasol Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship Goes On.
The nation’s top scorer not only had 38 points on 14 of 27 from the field and 6 of 13 from three, but also had a career-high eight rebounds, plus a team-high of eight assists and four steals. He now has 3,642 points, 25 points away from the tie and 26 away from breaking Pete Maravich’s NCAA record of 3,667. He also has 155, 3 pointers to the year, fourth place in NCAA history and seven off Stephen Curry’s single-season mark of 162 in 2007-08.
The Titans (14-18, 9-11 HL) now meet top seed Youngstown State in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
Graduate Senior Damezi Anderson had 11 points with four rebounds and Graduate Senior AJ Oliver had nine points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. Freshman Marcus Tankersley had a career-high 12 points with five rebounds and three steals, and senior Gerald Liddell had two points, four rebounds, two blocks and a steal.
Detroit Mercy led 41-36 just four minutes into the second half but blew up the game with a 19-2 run over the next five minutes. The defense held Purdue Fort Wayne (17-15, 9-11 HL) 0-of-7 out of the field with two turnovers in that span while the Titans shot 7-of-10 and four of them shot from long range.
Oliver started the sprint with a three after a Davis steal and then Tankersley and Oliver had two layups in a row, the latter from a foul and he made the free throw for the three-point game for a 48-36 lead. Anderson then pinned back-to-back triples to extend the rin to 13 straight points and a 55-26 advantage with 11:48 left. After Purdue hit Fort Wayne 1-of-2 at the line, Anderson knocked in another three and the Mastodons shared another pair before a Davis-Trey had the team 60-38 10-20 ahead.
Detroit Mercy would never see their lead fall below double digits the rest of the way as the Mastodons drew within 12, 60-48, but Davis scored eight straight points to regain a 20-point lead with five at 68-48 minutes to walk to reach.
Both teams were very sluggish early on, with Detroit Mercy 1-of-7 and Purdue Fort Wayne 2-of-7 in the opening minutes.
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The game was 16-16 midway through the period as the Titans put on an 8-0 run. Davis started with a three and then Tankersley came up with a steal and layup before another Davis triple made it 24-16 with 7:59 to go.
The Mastodons cut it to three, 24-21 when Tankersley had another layup and Davis followed with one and was fouled, converting a 29-21 advantage on the free throw with 3:46 left. The lead rose to 10, 34-24 after another Tankersley bucket and a three from Oliver with 2:09 left and the Titans went into the break with a 34-26 lead.
Detroit Mercy shot 47.5% from the field (29 of 61), 10 of 25 (40.0%) from three, and 13 of 16 (81.3%) at the free throw line. The Titans also won the rebound total by 37-34 and had 10 steals while holding Purdue Fort Wayne to 38.3% shooting.
The Titans and Penguins drop their tip Thursday at 8:00 p.m. at the Beeghly Center.
Game Notes:
- Detroit Mercy now leads the all-time series by 5-4 and is 4-2 at home
- The Titans are 3-2 at home to the Mastodons and are dominating this season’s home game with 85-52
- Detroit Mercy is now 38-39 all-time in the HL postseason, with eight trips to the title game (1988, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2012) and three championships (1994, 1999, 2012).
- The Titans are an all-time perfect 9-0 in home playoff games
- Detroit Mercy now has three wins against the same team for the 11th time in school history
- The Titans won their first game finishing eighth in the playoffs as they are now 1-3 all-time
- The eighth seed in the Horizon League postseason is now 14-31 all-time, with two trips to the title game at Wright State in 1994-95 and Cleveland State in 2017-18.
- The Titans had started 11 consecutive games with the same starting five before today’s game, the longest streak under head coach Mike Davis and the Titans’ longest since the same five of Juwan Howard Jr., Doug Anderson, Nick Minnerath, Jason Calliste and Ray McCallum at 26 straight in 2012-13
- Detroit Mercy has overtaken its opponents 23 times in the season and in 11 straight games as the Titans finished third in the HL with 36.5 rebounds per game and 10th in the HL with 13.1 offensive rebounds per game lead in the nation
- Detroit Mercy has connected with double-digit 3-pointers in 19 games and is first in the HL and tenth in the nation with 39.1% from three points, and first in the HL and sixth in DI at 10.4 per game
- The Titans have connected with double-digit free throws in 21 games this season as they rank third in the Horizon League and 27th in the nation in terms of free throw percentage
- The win was No. 411 for head coach Mike Davis, 142nd in DI NCAA history and one down from 141st
- Davis currently leads the nation in points total (28.3 pp), total points (908), 3-point total (155), 3 points per game (4.89), and total field goals (296).
- The only titan to ever lead the nation in an NCAA statistic was Spencer Haywood, who averaged 22.1 rebounds in 1968-69 while his current rate of 28.3 points is the second-highest in school history behind Haywood’s 32 .1 in 1968-69 and that was the highest in HL history
- Davis has now reached double digits in all 143 of his collegiate games, NCAA records for total and consecutive games
- Davis now has 104 career 20-point games, 40 career 30-point outings and eight 40-point contests in 143 games — he averaged 17 points in 125 of them
- Davis came on as third all-time in NCAA history with 4.07, three-point field goals per game and led the nation with 4.83 per contest that year
- He now has 21 games a year with four or more 3-pointers and has hit threes in 138 of his 143 college games, with 81 career games with four or more triples, 33 with six or more, 17 games with seven or more, and has connected five times to 10 or more
- Davis is third in Titan history with 592 assists, 19 behind Wilbert McCormick and 23 behind record holder Kevin McAdoo’s 615 as is
- only the second player in NCAA history to accumulate 3,000 points and 500 assists, after St. Peter’s Keydren Clark (2002-06)
- Davis now has 1,212 field goals in his career, just three from Houston’s Elvin Hayes and four behind Kansas’ Danny Manning to break into the top 6 in NCAA history
- Liddell has now blocked at least one shot in 14 games this season
- Anderson has now hit double digits in nine of his last 13 games and 18 of the year
- Oliver now has at least five rebounds in six straight games and 17 twice in the season with his season-best of nine
- Tankersley’s previous high in points was 10 in Cleveland state
- It was Jamail Pink’s first career start as a sophomore
- Detroit played with TJ Moss (leg) and Arashma Parks (illness) listed as daily