DETROIT (4/18/13) – The University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team added its first piece to the frontcourt for next season as head coach Ray McCallum announced the signing of 6-8, 210-pound Patrick Onwenu (Detroit, Mich./Highland Community College) to a National Letter of Intent. Onwenu, a graduate of Southfield High School, will have two years of eligibility at Detroit.

“He is a very athletic player who can score, rebound, and block shots and comes from a winning program,” said McCallum. “He is also a local student of the game that is capable of stepping out to the perimeter to make threes, which is a big asset in this league.”

Onwenu earned NJCAA Division I All-American Honorable Mention for the 2012-13 season after averaging 17.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 4.2 blocked shots per game to help lead the Cougars to the regular season Arrowhead Conference title with a 23-7 overall record and to the Region IV Semifinals. He was also named the All-Arrowhead Conference and Region IV Player of the Year along with finishing fourth in the nation blocked shots. Onwenu scored a season-high 37 points against Kennedy-King College, before recording a career-high 11 blocked shots against Carl Sandburg College.

Onwenu was ranked the 52nd Junior College Player in the nation according to JucoJunction.com.

“We are losing two of the most athletic players in the Horizon League in Doug Anderson and Nick Minnerath and he definitely brings both an offensive and defensive presence to the floor,” added McCallum.

Before playing for Highland, Onwenu spent one year at Texas Southern where he played in 28 games, starting two, and averaged 3.2 points and 1.4 rebounds per game as a freshman. He scored a season-high 11 points with four rebounds in 14 minutes against Alabama State.

A 2011 graduate of Southfield High School, Onwenu was a member of a Blue Jays squad that made back-to-back appearances in the MHSAA Class A State Semifinals. He will join his former high school teammate Carlton Brundidge who sat out this past season with Detroit after transferring from the University of Michigan.

Onwenu, whose father Patrick Onwenu, Sr. is a graduate of UDM, is the first student-athlete to sign with the Titans this spring. St. Bonaventure, Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois and Georgia also recruited him.

The Titans are coming off a season in which they made the NIT for the seventh time in school history after finishing second in the Horizon League. Detroit finished the year 20-13 overall, its third 20-win season in the past four years.