DETROIT (12/26/2018) -- It is just a few days before the New Year, but its a new season for the Titans as the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team will start Horizon League action at Youngstown State on Friday.

Game time is set for a special 2 p.m. tip at the Beeghly Center and will be broadcast live on ESPN+, and fans can also listen to the Voice of the Titans Dan Hasty on 910 AM Superstation. 

This is the 40th year of the Horizon League (1979-80) and the 39th with Detroit Mercy as a member as the Titans are the eldest program in the league. Detroit Mercy joined in 1980-81 with the next current HL programs all joining in 1994 in Cleveland State, Green Bay, Milwaukee, UIC and Wright State. 

Detroit Mercy will open league play on the road for just the third time in the last 10 seasons, but against an opponent it has dominated as the Titans lead the all-time series, 37-9, which includes winning 11 in a row, and a 14-6 record on the road. 

Detroit Mercy's finished its non-conference schedule at 3-9, but it was one of the toughest in the country with nine road games and teams posting a 90-53 (62.9%) record so far. The schedule was featured as the 14th hardest by ESPN's BPI standard in a recent article released on Dec. 17. 

Freshman Antoine Davis is third in the nation in scoring at 26.0 points per game to go with 3.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists, while senior Josh McFolley is tallying 12.1 points and 3.1 assists. 

The Titans will return home after the New Year on Jan. 3 as the red, white and blue host defending Horizon League champion Wright State at 7 p.m. at Calihan Hall. For tickets, visit DetroitTitans.com/tix or call at 313/993-1700. 

THE OHIO TITANS

• Detroit Mercy has seen and will continue to see a lot of Ohio in this six-week span as the game is in the midst of a nine-game swing against teams from the Buckeye State.
• The Titans are 280-225 (.560) all-time against programs that reside in the state of Ohio. 

TOUGH NON-CONFERENCE SLATE

• Detroit Mercy's basketball non-conference schedule was one of the toughest in the country with nine road games and teams posted a 90-53 (62.9%) record so far. Nine of the 12 teams have winning records and one is .500 on the season. 
• The schedule was featured as the 14th hardest by ESPN's BPI standard in a recent article released on Dec. 17. 
• In total, the Titans' 12 non-conference opponents posted a 213-182 record (53.9%) last season, and four teams making the postseason with NCAA appearances by Butler and Xavier, a NIT team in Temple and one CIT opponent in Eastern Michigan. 

HORIZON LEAGUE ROAD HISTORY

• The Titans are 15-23 all-time in Horizon League openers and 11-27 in Horizon League road openers. 
• Detroit Mercy has dropped five-straight HL road openers with its last win coming in 2012-13, a 101-60 victory at Youngstown State. 

FAMILY FUN

• Nothing new for the Titans to have a family connection in the program and this season, Detroit Mercy will feature three Davis' in head coach Mike Davis, assistant coach Mike Davis Jr. and freshman guard Antoine Davis.
• From 2010-13, the Titans had head coach Ray McCallum and star guard Ray McCallum winning the Horizon League Championship in 2012 and earning a trip to the NIT in 2013.

AD GETTING BUCKETS

• Freshman Antoine Davis led the team for the 12-straight game - every game this season - finishing with 19 points at Xavier. 
• He now has eight 20-point games, five 30+ performances and the 42-point barrage in his first 12 collegiate games. 
• To start the year, he posted eight-straight 20-point games, the first Titan to have eight-straight games with 20 or more since Willie Green's 10 in a row in 2002-03.
• His five 30-point games on the season are the most since Green had five in 2003 and another would be the most since Tony Tolbert's six in 1993-94.
• Green was just in town on Dec. 2 as he is an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors as they held a practice at Calihan Hall. 

DAVIS AMONG NATION'S LEADERS

• Freshman Antoine Davis - three-time HL Freshman of the Week - comes into the contest leading the nation in one national category and among the leaders in a few others.
• Davis is third in the nation in scoring at 26.0 points per game.
• His 60, three-pointers top the country and he is third in three-pointers per game (5.00), sixth in total points (312) and eighth in total field goals (109). 
• Davis is also second in the Horizon League and 80th in three-point field goal percentage (41.1%), third in the HL and 85th overall in free throw percentage (84.0%) and leading the conference and 11th in the country in minutes per game (37:10). 

WE GOT OUR CURRY

• It was a long road for junior Harrison Curry to get back on the court, but he has added a scoring punch for the Titans. 
• He scored 16 points with three rebounds and two blocks in 27 minutes of action, getting a start in just his second collegiate game - first as a Titan at Toledo. 
• He then had 12 points with four rebounds, a block and a steal against Ohio. 
• After playing just one game at Louisiana Tech last year before an injury in the season opener forced him to miss the year, he transferred to Detroit Mercy and applied for a waiver to play immediately.
• He missed the first nine games this year before it was approved by the NCAA. 

LET IT FLY

• Detroit Mercy has started the season on fire from the outside as it is fourth in the Horizon League with 9.8 triples per game, 32nd in the country, while ranking fourth in the HL and 88th in the nation in three-point field goal percentage (36.6). 
• The Titans have nailed 117 treys on the year, tying a school record with 17 against Loyola Maryland and then connecting on 15 versus Bowling Green and at Eastern Michigan. 
• The 117, 3-pointers are 37th in the nation.

TAKING CARE OF THE BALL

• Detroit Mercy has seen its offense struggle of late, but not because it is turning it over. 
• The Titans lead the Horizon League and are 27th in Division I committing just 11.2 per game.
• They have five games on the season with less than 10 turnovers and after turning it over a season-high 19 times at Temple and following that up with 18 at Butler, Detroit Mercy has just 88 in their last nine games (9.8 per game). 

BRANDON SHOWING OFF

• Freshman Chris Brandon had five points and four rebounds in the season opener, but he earned his first collegiate start at Temple and had a stellar game
• Brandon finished 7-of-9 from the floor with a team-high nine rebounds and had some nice buckets off his four offensive caroms and came away with two blocks.
• The nine rebounds are the most by a true freshman since teammate Gerald Blackshear Jr. had 10 at Cleveland State in 2016.
• He tied his season high with nine boards and scored six points against Ohio and grabbed six more caroms on the road at Xavier. 
• He also put together a12-point, six-rebound game against Kent State, where he was 6-for-6 from the field. At one point in the first half, he scored eight-straight points for the Titans, using his athleticism to corral two offensive boards for tip-ins during the spurt. 
• He posted a season-high three blocks against Bowling Green in just nine minutes and had five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block at Eastern Michigan. 
• On the season, he is 20-of-32 (62.5%) from the field and averaging a team-high 4.8 boards and 0.9 blocks per game. 

OH LORDY HE WENT FOR 40

• Antoine Davis set the Titan freshman with 42 points in the win over Loyola Maryland.
• The 42 points are the most by a Titan since Willie Green had 43 at UIC in 2003 and tied for the eighth most in school history as well as the seventh most by a player in NCAA DI this year. 
• Davis was 14-of-21 from the field and 10-of-14 from the outside to go with five assists, three rebounds and two steals. The 10 treys tied him with Desmond Ferguson, who had 10 against Milwaukee in 2000.
• The freshman record was 33 points by Corey Allen against Fort Wayne in 2016. 

WHAT A DEBUT

• Freshman Antoine Davis had a collegiate debut to remember as he netted a team-high 32 points at Western Michigan. 
• He scored the team's first points and ended the contest 12-of-26 from the field and 6-of-14 from behind the arc.
• The 32-point outing was the most ever by a Titan true freshman in his debut game - and one off the Titan freshman record of 33 points that he would eventually break - and the second most ever by a Titan in their collegiate debut behind only junior college transfer Spencer Haywood's 36 he tallied against Aquinas in 1968, a game that was called with 6 1/2 minutes left after he broke the backboard with a dunk and the Titans up 105-40. 

THE ENCORE

• After going for 32 at Western Michigan, freshman Antoine Davis became the first freshman in school history to post back-to-back 30-point games as he scored a team-high 30 at Temple.     
• Davis was 11-of-21 from the field and 6-of-13 from behind the arc.
• He reached 30 points for the second-straight game, the first Titan to record back-to-back 30's since Jon Goode did it during the 2007-08 season with 30 at Loyola and 35 at UIC. 

GETTING THE D BACK

• The Titan defense was a big reason it won three in a row and nearly had a fourth against Kent State.
• Detroit Mercy held KSU to 37.1 percent shooting - 28.1 percent in the second half - and just 10-of-31 from the outside with 14 turnovers in the tough 78-74 setback.    
• Detroit Mercy forced Loyola Maryland to 36.5 percent shooting from the field and 5-of-25 from behind the arc with 14 turnovers before slowing down Bowling Green to 36.5 percent shooting and 5-of-23 from the outside with 11 miscues. 
• At Eastern Michigan, EMU shot 41.8 percent but just 6-of-27 (22.2%) from behind the arc. 

ZONE PRINCIPLES

• The Titans have used a zone defense this year and they have frustrated teams at times trying to shoot the three ball as they are 157th overall holding teams to just 33.0 percent from behind the arc. 
• Last year, the Titans ended the season ranked 333rd in three-point field goal percentage defense (39.7%). 

TAKE IT AWAY

• Detroit Mercy is second in the Horizon League and 54th in the country with 8.1 steals per game.
• The Titans posted a season-high 12 steals against Ohio and had 11 versus Kent State and its last time out at Xavier. 
• A lot of that is due to the Horizon League's leading burglar in senior Josh McFolley as he tops the conference and is 35th in the nation with 2.17 steals per game. 

1,183 & COUNTING

• Senior Josh McFolley became the 42nd Titan in school history to reach 1,000 last year and he did so in dramatic fashion scoring Detroit Mercy's first 12 points and ending with a career-high 34 against Green Bay in the regular season finale. 
• With his nine points at Xavier, he now has 1,183 points, 27th in school history, just five in back of Frank Russell for 26th place. 

PICKING YOUR POCKET

• Senior Josh McFolley has been a thief for all of his Titan career and came away with four steals against at Xavier, matching his season high that he had at Temple and against Kent State. 
• He now has 26 steals on the year and is leading the Horizon League and is 35th in the nation with 2.17 steals per game.
• The 172 thefts in his career is fifth in school history. 
• He led the team and was tied for second in the Horizon League with 1.5 steals per game last year as his 49 steals was the second most in the league. 
• Had also had six games with at least three steals last season, including a career-best six steals against UIC, where he also scored 30 points. 
• In his career, he has recorded a steal in 79 of his 105 career games, including 39 multi-steal contests and 21 with at least three takeaways.

MCFOLLEY FOR 3

• Josh McFolley connected on a 3-pointer in 25 of the Titans' 32 games last year, including a season-high six in the regular season finale against Green Bay.
• He has brought those sharp shooting to his senior, showcased by his 6-of-10 performance at Eastern Michigan. 
• He now has 189 career 3-pointers, sixth in school history, 13 away from the fifth spot. 

JOSH SAVING HIS BEST FOR LAST

• Senior Josh McFolley scored a season-high 20 points - his 12th career 20-point game - hitting 6-of-12 from three and registering six rebounds and six assists at Eastern Michigan. 
• He is averaging 12.1 points - 18th in the HL - 3.1 assists and 2.8 rebounds, while shooting 38.3 percent overall and a career-high 35.5 percent from three.
• McFolley started the season scoring in double figures in six-straight games - 11 straight dating back to last year - but saw that streak end as he had two points against Kent State.
• He had 19 points with a season-high seven rebounds off the bench at Akron and just tallied nine points and tied his season high for the third time this year with six assists at Xavier. 

KING ME

• Graduate senior Derrien King has come tallying double digits in scoring in five of the last nine contests and is coming off a 13-point and career-high eight rebounds at Xavier. 
• He scored 13 points with six rebounds against Kent State, hitting a big three with just over six minutes to go as the Titans took the lead and built an eight-point advantage against the Golden Flashes. 
• He was named to the Legends Classic Subregional All-Tournament Team after recording 15.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists, while nailing eight triples in wins over Loyola Maryland and Bowling Green. 
• He had 14 points and a career-tying seven rebounds in the title game versus BGSU and that was after scoring a season-high 17 points - hitting four 3-pointers - with four rebounds, two assists a steal and a block.
• The 17 points was the second most in his career behind the 22 he registered as a junior while at Washington State against Montana State in 2016. 
• He started coming into his own at Butler netting 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting.