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CLEVELAND, Ohio (1/12/13) –The University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team dropped its first Horizon League game of the year on Saturday with a 74-62 loss to Cleveland State at the Wolstein Center. The loss also snapped the Titans five-game winning streak.

Junior guard Ray McCallum led the Titans with a game-high 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the filed, while senior Nick Minnerath collected his first double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Evan Bruinsma also pitched in with seven points and six rebounds.

Cleveland State (10-8, 2-2 HL) jumped out to an early 6-2 lead, before Bruinsma drained a three-pointer to trim the lead to one with 17:35 remaining in the half. But the Vikings responded with a 12-3 run over the next three minutes to build an 18-8 lead. The Titans answered back with a 14-6 run to cut the lead to 24-22 with 9:39 left, before the Vikings closed the half with a 19-13 run, including a three-pointer from Bryn Forbes as time expired to take a 43-35 lead into the locker room. Forbes made five triples in the first half and led all scorers with 19 points. McCallum led Detroit with nine points, while Minnerath pitched in eight points and six rebounds.  

Detroit (11-6, 3-1 HL) started the second half with back-to-back lay-ups from Minnerath followed by a basket from McCallum to make the score 47-41 with 17:12 remaining. But that was a close as the score would get as the Vikings responded with a 7-1 run to build a 54-42 lead with 14:28 left. Cleveland State would extend its lead to 70-54, its largest lead of the game with 5:03 left, before the Titans defense held the Vikings scoreless for the next three minutes. Detroit had plenty of opportunities to get back in the game over that stretch, but missed a handful of free throw attempts and turned the ball over to help Cleveland State hold on to the lead.

Cleveland State won the battle on the boards, 39-34, and forced 15 Titan turnovers, which resulted in 16 points, while Detroit also forced 15 turnovers, but only managed one point out of them. Cleveland State shot 51.9 percent (28-54) overall, including 57.1 percent (8-14) from downtown, while holding Detroit to 42.6 percent (23-54) overall and just 16.7 percent (3-18) from downtown. The Vikings finished 10-of-16 from the charity stripe, while Detroit shot a season low 40.6 percent (13-32) from the foul line.

Cleveland State was led by Forbes who scored a career-high 21 points, including 19 in the first half, while Tim Kamczyc pitched in 15 points and Sebastian Douglas added 11.

Detroit will return home on Thursday, Jan. 17 to host Valparaiso in a rematch of the 2012 Horizon League Championship game. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Calihan Hall and will be televised live on ESPNU.