CHICAGO (1/24/2019) -- The Titans staged a furious comeback, but it was not enough as the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team fell, 79-67, at UIC on Thursday night.

Freshman Antoine Davis led the way with a game-high 28 points, hitting five more from downtown to raise his total to 96 triples on the season.

Senior Gerald Blackshear Jr. had a career-high 13 points with eight rebounds and a career-tying three steals and junior Lamar Hamrick posted 14 points and tied his season best with four steals. 

Detroit Mercy (8-12, 5-3 HL) got off to a slow start as UIC (10-11, 4-4 HL) scored the game's first nine points. The Titans cut it to 14-11, but a big run had the red, white and blue down 40-16 with a little more than two minutes left in the first half.

UIC would extend its lead to as many as 19 early in the second period, but the Titans started to chip away and eventually got the deficit to single digits as Davis scored 17 points in the second frame. 

An 11-0 run trimmed the disadvantage to eight, 48-40, just five minutes into the half and a 10-2 spurt had the team within five, 68-63, with just over three minutes remaining. 

Detroit Mercy would cut the Flames advantage all the way down to five, 68-63, with 2:56 left, but they could not get any closer.

The Titans shot 43.4 percent for the game with 10, 3-pointers and forced 15 UIC turnovers, tying a season high with 12 steals. 

The red, white and blue will be back in action on Saturday as they visit IUPUI in a 1 p.m. tip. 

First Half:

• UIC jumped out to a 9-0 lead before Davis ended that with a basket and a free throw a little more than three minutes into the game
• A three by Davis pulled the Titans within 14-11 at the 13:07 mark
• Another three by Davis and the Flames led 20-14 a little more than 11 minutes left
• UIC then went on a 20-2 run to jump out to a big lead, 40-16, with 2:49 left
• Hamrick ended that spurt with a bucket and Blackshear Jr. had two dunks down the stretch as the Titans went into the locker room down, 41-22

Second Half:

• UIC opened its largest lead of 19, 48-29, at the 17:19 mark
• Detroit Mercy went on an 11-o run in the next three minute to cut it to single digits as Davis had seven points in that stretch and his jumper made it 48-40 with 15:10 remaining
• The Titans would get within eight on four more occasions, the latest at 59-51 with 7:38 on the clock as senior Josh McFolley nailed a three
• UIC then had a 13-point lead, 66-53, with 5:20 remaining when the Titans went on a 10-2 spurt to trim it to five
• Freshman Willy Isiani started the second comeback attempt with a triple and then McFolley would net another three
• Two free throws by Davis and the score was just 68-63 with 2:56 left
• The Flames then scored five straight and the Titans would not get within five again

Game Notes:

• The Titans still lead the overall series, 31-20
• Assistant coach Tracy Dildy played point guard at UIC from 1987-89 and finished his collegiate career with the eighth-most assists (260) in school history and was later inducted into the UIC Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995 and served as a UIC assistant coach twice
• The Titans also had 12 steals against Green Bay and Ohio
• Freshman Willy Isiani became the 11th Titan to start a game this year and Detroit Mercy has tied Harvard, Princeton, Incarnate Word and Eastern Washington for the most players to have started a game on the season at 11
• Davis now has 14, 20-point games, eight 30+ performances and a pair of 40-point efforts in his first 20 collegiate games, the only freshman in school history with two 40-point outings
• Davis now has 96 triples on the year to lead Division I and move to third in school history, passing Greg Grays' 95 in 2001-02
• McFolley now has 188 career steals, seven shy of the school record
• Blackshear Jr. had posted 12 points four times in his career
• Hamrick was in double figures for the first time since netting 10 at Youngstown State
• Hamrick also had four steals at Western Michigan and has registered five multi-steal games on the year