DETROIT (12/19/2019) -- Sophomore Antoine Davis returned to the court and had a game-high 26 points, but it was not enough as the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team dropped a 74-61 game to visiting Northeastern on Thursday at Calihan Hall.

Sophomore Willy Isiani had 11 points and tied his career-high with seven rebounds, while senior Justin Miller finished with 13 points and six rebounds.

During the early action of the first half, the bounces seemed to go the Titans (1-10) way as baskets from Davis and Miller kept Detroit Mercy hanging around. A three from Isiani gave the Titans the lead at 21-19 just south of midway through the first half, but Northeastern (6-6) would come back to take a 33-29 lead at the break. 
 
In the second half, the Titans cut the Huskies lead to just two at the outset to make the score 35-33 at the 18:48 mark.  
 
However, Northeastern went on an 8-0 run to open the lead back up to ten and the team could not recover.
 
The defense held the nation's fourth-leading scorer Jordan Roland to just seven points and Northeastern to just 9-of-24 from the outside with 12 turnovers.

Detroit Mercy will be back in action on Saturday in a Titan doubleheader as the women play Eastern Michigan at Noon with the men facing Southern Illinois-Edwardsville at 3 p.m. 
 
First Period:  

• A quick Davis basket in the first half made the contest within reach followed by a basket from Miller at the 15-minute mark 
• Isiani's and-one conversion on a pass from senior Brad Calipari made the score 12-11.  
• After a flagrant one foul was called near the end of the half with Chris Brandon splitting the ensuing pair of free throws to make it a 33-27 contest
• The Titans would close out the first half on a 5-0 scoring run to end the first half of play with the score 33-29 in favor of Northeastern.  

 
Second Period:  

• The Huskies would open up the half starting on a 10-3 scoring run  
•  Sophomore Boe Nguidjol's free throw would cut the Huskie lead to just four with 15:50 left in the second half
• The Titans as a team shot just 25 percent from the three-point line for the half
• After the Titans switched to a zone and started to press, it seemed as if the strategy would pay off as a subsequent Davis three-pointer swished through and the lead was back to nine with just a little over 12:00 left in the contest

Game Notes:

• This was the fifth career meeting between Detroit Mercy and Northeastern with the Titans leading the series, 3-2
• So far on the season, the non-conference schedule was ranked 54th in the nation as the first 10 teams have combined for a 66-35 (65.3%) record
• Detroit Mercy came into the contest 107 of their last 131 (81.6%) at the free-throw line
• Davis - who missed last game due to the flue - came into the game third in the country and leading the Horizon League in scoring at 24.1 points, while Northeastern's Jordan Roland was fourth at 23.8
• Davis now has 31 career 20-point games in 40 collegiate contests
• Miller now has 976 career points 
• Isiani also had seven rebounds against UC Irvine