DETROIT — Graduate senior Antoine Davis nearly had a triple double and ended with a game-high 38 points as the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team is moving on in the Barbasol Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship with an 81-68 victory over Purdue Fort Wayne on Tuesday.
The nation's leading scorer not only scored 38 points on 14-of-27 from the field and 6-of-13 from three, but tallied a career-high eight rebounds to go with a team-high eight assists and four steals. He now has 3,642 points, 25 points away from tying and 26 shy of breaking Pete Maravich's NCAA record 3,667. He also has 155, 3-pointers on the year, tied for fourth in NCAA history and seven away from the single-season mark of 162 by Stephen Curry in 2007-08.
The Titans (14-18, 9-11 HL) will now head to top-seeded Youngstown State on Thursday in the quarterfinals.
Graduate senior Damezi Anderson scored 11 points with four rebounds and graduate senior A.J. Oliver had nine points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. Freshman Marcus Tankersley scored 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 had a 41-36 lead just four minutes into the second half, but blew the game open with a 19-2 run over the next five minutes. The defense held Purdue Fort Wayne (17-15, 9-11 HL) to 0-of-7 from the field with two turnovers in that span, while the Titans were 7-of-10 shooting with four of those from distance.
Oliver started the spurt with a three off a steal from Davis and then Tankersley and Oliver had back-to-back layups, the latter off a foul and he made the free throw for the three-point play for a 48-36 lead. Anderson then nailed back-to-back triples to extend the rin to 13-straight points and a 55-26 advantage with 11:48 left. After Purdue Fort Wayne hit 1-of-2 at the line, Anderson knocked in another three and once again the Mastodons split a pair before a Davis trey had the team up 60-38 with 10:20 remaining.
Detroit Mercy would never see their lead fall to under double digits the rest of the way as the Mastodons pulled within 12, 60-48, but Davis netted eight-straight points to make it a 20-point lead again at 68-48 with five minutes to go.
Both teams were a big sluggish to start as Detroit Mercy was 1-of-7 and Purdue Fort Wayne was 2-of-7 in the first few minutes.
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The game was tied at 16-16 midway through the period when the Titans went on an 8-0 run. Davis started it 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 on the free throw for a 29-21 advantage with 3:46 left. The lead rose to 10, 34-24, on another Tankersley bucket and a three from Oliver with 2:09 left and the Titans took a 34-26 margin into the break.
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 rebounding total 37-34 and had 10 steals, while holding Purdue Fort Wayne to 38.3% shooting.
The Titans and Penguins will tip off at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday at the Beeghly Center.
Game Notes:
- Detroit Mercy now leads the all-time series, 5-4, and is 4-2 at home
- The Titans are 3-2 at home against the Mastodons, dominating the home game this season, 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 a perfect 9-0 all-time in home playoff games
- Detroit Mercy now has three wins over the same team for the 11th time in school history
- The Titans won their first-ever game as an eighth seed 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 in Wright State in 1994-95 and Cleveland State in 2017-18.
- The Titans had started the same starting five in 11-straight games prior to tonight's game, the longest streak under head coach Mike Davis and the longest by the Titans since the same five of Juwan Howard Jr., Doug Anderson, Nick Minnerath, Jason Calliste and Ray McCallum in 26 straight in 2012-13
- Detroit Mercy has outrebounded its opponents 23 times on the season and in 11-straight games as the Titans came into the contest third in the HL in rebounding at 36.5 per game and tops the HL and 10th in the nation with 13.1 offensive rebounds per contest
- Detroit Mercy has connected on double-digit 3-pointers in 19 games and is first in the HL and 10th in the nation at 39.1% from three, as well as first in the HL and sixth in DI with 10.4 per game
- The Titans have connected on double-digit free throws in 21 games on the season as they are third in the Horizon League and 27th in the nation in free-throw percentage
- The win was # 411 for head coach Mike Davis, 142nd in DI NCAA history and one away from 141st
- Davis currently leads the nation in scoring (28.3 ppg.), total points (908), total 3-pointers (155), 3-pointers per game (4.89) and total field goals (296)
- The only Titan to ever lead the nation in a NCAA statistic was Spencer Haywood, who averaged 22.1 rebounds in 1968-69, while his current rate of 28.3 points would be the second-highest in school history behind Haywood's 32.1 in 1968-69 and the highest in HL history
- Davis has now reached double figures 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 - reaching 17 points in 125 of them
- Davis came into the game third all-time in NCAA history with 4.07, three-point field goals per game and leading the nation this year at 4.83 per contest
- He now has 21 games on the year with four or more 3-pointers and has made a three in 138 of his 143 collegiate games, with 81 career games with four or more triples, 33 with six or more, 17 games with seven or more, and has five times connected on 10 or more
- Davis is third in Titan history with 592 assists, 19 behind Wilbert McCormick and 23 in back of record holder Kevin McAdoo's 615 as he is
- just the second player in NCAA history to amass 3,000 points and 500 assists, joining St. Peter's Keydren Clark (2002-06)
- Davis now has 1,212 career field goals, just three away from Houston's Elvin Hayes and four in back of Kansas' Danny Manning to move into the top six in NCAA history
- Liddell has now blocked at least one shot in 14 games on the season
- Anderson has now scored in double figures in nine of the last 13 games and 18 on the year
- Oliver has now grabbed at least five rebounds in six-straight games and 17 on the season with his season best of nine twice
- Tankersley's previous high in points was 10 at Cleveland State
- It was sophomore Jamail Pink's first career start
- Detroit played with TJ Moss (leg) and Arashma Parks (illness) who are listed as day to day
