DETROIT (2/10/2021) -- Two of the hottest teams in the Horizon League will meet this weekend as the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team visits first-place Cleveland State on Feb. 12-13.

Friday's game will be televised nationally on ESPNU at 9:00 p.m. with Jordan Bernfield and David Padgett on the call, while Saturday's game will be on ESPN3 as Al Pawlowski will have the action at 7:00 p.m.

Fans can catch both games on the radio on WLQV 92.7 FM & 1500 AM FaithTalk Detroit with the Voice of Detroit Mercy basketball Dan Hasty.

Detroit Mercy has won five in a row and seven of the last eight games to come into the weekend at 8-8 overall and 7-5 in league play, where they sit in fifth place in the conference's seeding formula. Cleveland State has been at the top of the league all season long and are now 14-5 on the year and 14-2 in the conference and have won four in a row. 

The Titans are looking to win six in a row for the first time since a 10-game run in 2003-04, which included eight-straight conference wins and another two in the HL Tournament. Meanwhile, the 7-1 mark in their last eight games is the best since a 10-1 stretch at the end of the 2011-12 season

Junior Antoine Davis captured his second-straight Horizon League Player of the Week award and was named the Lute Olson National Player of the Week as he averaged 28.0 points, 3.5 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 47.1% from the field (16-of-34), 63.2% from three (12-of-19) and a perfect 12-of-12 at the free-throw line in the sweep of Purdue Fort Wayne. He has now scored 20 or more points in his last eight games and moved into the top spot in the Horizon League and fifth in the nation in scoring at 22.0 points per game.

CSU is led by Torrey Patton, who tops the team in scoring (12.5) and rebounding (7.5), while junior D'Moi Hodge is tallying 11.1 ppg., and has the highest output on the year in the league with a 46-point performance at Purdue Fort Wayne back in December. 

ALL-TIME SERIES

• The teams have split the last eight meetings, but the Titans still lead the overall match-up, 44-26.
• Cleveland State swept the series last season as Detroit Mercy erased a 15-point first-half deficit at home to fall 67-66 in overtime, while the road contest saw the Vikings go up by 15 in the second half and the Titans trimmed it down to four with under 30 seconds to go before falling, 64-59. 
• Detroit Mercy is 13-19 on the road in the series and has dropped eight of the last 10 (2016, 2018) at the Wolstein Center.  

CHECK OUT THESE GRADES

• The Titans recorded a 3.45 GPA spanning over 250 student-athletes with over 220 tallying a term GPA of 3.0. All 17 programs were above a 3.0 with four programs over a 3.5 and 10 exceeding 3.4. 
• The men's basketball team registered a 3.09 team GPA, the second-straight semester the program has tallied a 3.0. 

KEEP THE STREAK GOING

• The Titans' current five-game winning streak is the longest since the 2012-13 season, while the last time they won five-straight conference games was 2011-12 (only one was a regular season, the other four were in the HL Championships as the Titans won the title that year).
• Detroit Mercy is looking to win six in a row for the first time since a 10-game run in 2003-04, which included eight-straight conference wins and another two in the HL Tournament. 
• Meanwhile, the 7-1 mark in their last eight games is the best since a 10-1 stretch at the end of the 2011-12 season

HOUSE OF HORRORS

• The Titans have struggled in their recent visits to Cleveland State dropping eight of the last 10 on the road.
• Even Antoine Davis has had his struggles against the Vikings, both overall and on the road.
• In four career games against Cleveland State, he is tallying 19.5 points on 27.1% shooting (23-of-85) and 15.4% from three (6-of-39).
• In two games on the road, he is averaging 16.0 ppg., shooting 25.5% (12-of-47) from the field and 18.1% (4-of-22) from behind the arc. 

FROM THREE

• The Titans have connected on double-digit 3-pointers in six of their last seven games and seven times this season, actually, all seven times have been in the last nine games.
• They nailed 17 in the first win against Green Bay and 16 in the first win against Purdue Fort Wayne and are now 97-of-215 (45.1%) in the last seven games.
• Detroit Mercy is now leading the HL and 16th in DI with 9.9 triples per game, while its 38.3% from behind the arc is second in the league and 25th in the country. 

SOME HOT SHOOTING

• Detroit Mercy has tallied at least 50.0% shooting from the field in four of the last five games and six of the last nine, reaching as high as 66.0% in the win against Green Bay. 
• The Titans streak could easily be at five in a row, but they were 1-of-10 in the last six minutes after taking a 30-point lead over Purdue Fort Wayne and ended up at 44.6% from the field. 

AT THE TOP

• Detroit Mercy led the HL and was ninth in the NCAA in free-throw percentage at 78.2 percent last season and are currently sixth in the nation and tops in the league again in that category hitting 79.8% on the year (186-of-233).
• The Titans are coming off a 21-of-23 effort against Purdue Fort Wayne. They hit all 11 at the charity stripe at Michigan State and were 18-of-20 against Kent State, 16-of-19 at Western Michigan, 15-of-18 in the final game versus Wright State, 15-of-19 in the first home game against Oakland and 15-of-16 in the first game at Oakland.  
• Part of that success is junior Antoine Davis, who is leading the league and 57th in the country hitting 86.4 % (51-of-59) and owns a career 87.8%, second in school history and the 12th highest among all active Division I players. 
• The Titans also have six other players who are hitting over 70.0% at the line on the year.

KEEPING THE BALL & STAYING OUT OF TROUBLE

• The Titans currently rank 57th in the nation and fourth in the HL averaging just 11.8 turnovers per game. 
• Detroit Mercy has less than 10 turnovers six times on the year with a season-low of seven at Notre Dame earlier in the season. 
• They also rank 10th in the country and second in the league averaging just 14.4 fouls per game. 
• In the first game victory over Purdue Fort Wayne, the Titans were whistled for just six fouls.
• In fact, in nine of the 16 games on the year, teams have gone to the line 10 or fewer times against the Titans, including Green Bay going 1-of-2 in one game and last week as PFW was 4-of-9 and 3-of-4.  

STARTING TO HEAT UP

• Antoine Davis had a slow start to the season averaging just 16.3 points, shooting 31.1 % from the field (37-of-119) and 10.4% from three (5-of-48) in the first six games
• After having one of his shooting games in his career in the second game against Wright State, where he was 3-of-18 from the field and 0-of-7 from three, he has turned it on over his last 10 contests
• Davis is averaging 25.4 points and 4.9 assists, while shooting 48.6% from the field (86-of-177) and 48.5% from behind the arc (50-of-103) in the last 10 games.
• He has also scored 24 or more in his last eight games with 26 and 30 in wins over Green Bay, 30 and 27 in the split at Oakland, 25 and 24 in the sweep at Youngstown State and 30 and 26 in the wins over Purdue Fort Wayne. 

 
DAVIS 2ND LEADING RETURNING SCORER IN D1

• After finishing third in the nation in scoring as a freshman (26.1), Antoine Davis was right back on top of the nation's leaders as a sophomore finishing fourth in the country at 24.3 points per game, trailing only Marquette's Markus Howard (27.8), UTSA's Jhivvan Jackson (26.8) and Hampton's Jermaine Marrow (24.8).
• He entered the season as the second leading returning scoring behind Jackson as Howard and Marrow both graduated. 
• Davis' career 24.5 points per game is tops among all active players and his 1,865 career points is ninth-most among active players and the most in the junior class. 
• He is currently second in the HL and fifth in the nation in scoring at 22.0 points and also tops the team and is fifth in the league with 4.3 assists per game.

RACKING UP THE POINTS

• Junior Antoine Davis now has 54 career 20-point games, 18 career 30-point outings and three 40-point contests in just 76 collegiate games and has also scored in double figures in all 76 games - reaching at least 17 points in 61 of them.
• He is now 23rd all-time in scoring in the Horizon League at 1,865 points, while his 24.5 points per game is third all-time. 

ONE LETHAL SHOT

• Antoine Davis hit a season-high 8-of-11 from three in his 30-point performance against Purdue Fort Wayne and that was after nailing 7-of-11 in the second win over Green Bay a couple of weeks earlier. 
• In fact, he has hit at least four in the last nine games and five in six of those. 
• He now has 40 games with four or more triples, 14 with six or more, seven times with seven or more, and has twice connected on 10 in his career.
• Davis has 288 career 3-pointers, second in school history, while his career 3.79 triples per game is the highest among all active players in DI and the seventh-best mark all-time in NCAA history. 
• Earlier this season, he was an uncharacteristic 0-of-9 at Michigan State, 0-of-6 game at Western Michigan and 0-of-7 versus Wright State and that marked just the second, third and fourth time in 76 collegiate games that he failed to hit a three. The other was an 0-of-5 mark against Cleveland State last season.

A LONG JOURNEY FOR KUOL

• Graduate senior transfer Bul Kuol has posted double digits in scoring 13 times with four 20-point outings, while also setting career highs in every category. 
• He just tallied a career-high 29 points against Purdue Fort Wayne as he was a career-best 12-of-21 from the field with five 3-pointers and three steals. 
• At Youngstown State, he hit the go-ahead triple late in the game in game one, and in game two, he forced a key turnover as the Titans held on for the win. 
• In the win at Oakland, he came close to his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high nine boards and five assists. 
• Against Green Bay, he averaged 20.5 points on 12-of-19 shooting (63.2%), 6-of-9 from three (66.7%) and 11-of-15 (73.3%) at the line, while grabbing 6.0 rebounds. 
• In the first home game with Oakland, he tallied a then career-high 28 points on 7-of-14 from the field, a career-best 6-of-12 from three and 8-of-8 at the line.
• Kuol netted a then career-best 21 points - hitting 7-of-15 shots and 4-of-8 from three, against Wright State to go with a high watermark of four thefts. He also handed out a career-high five assists in the first game with three swats.  
• He netted 18 points with six caroms at Notre Dame and was active in the season opener on defense, ending the game with 12 points and four boards at MSU. 
• He is now second on the team and 13th in the Horizon League averaging 15.2 points, hitting 42.9% at the field, 41.2% from behind the arc and 78.0% at the line.

FRASER DID WHAT?

• Graduate senior Marquell Fraser accomplished something no Titan has done in 24 years and that was post a double-double in his Titan debut.
• Fraser had 11 points and a career-high 12 rebounds at nationally-ranked Michigan State, the first Titan to record a double-double in their first game since Derrick Hayes notched 14 points and 10 boards against Wayne State on Nov. 23, 1996. 
• It was his third career double-double. 
• Fraser has shown that he can do it all for the Titans, score, rebound, distribute and play defense and his all-around skill set is on display in every game. 
• He is coming off a weekend where he tallied 10 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals in the second win over Purdue Fort Wayne and that was after handing out a career-high seven assists in game one.
• In his last seven games, he is averaging 7.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists, shooting 61.7% from the field (21-of-34).
• He has also made 14-straight free-throws as he is 84.2% at the line on the year. 
• Fraser had 12 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals at Notre Dame, a season-best 19 points hitting 8-of-12 shots in the first game versus Wright State and 10 points with seven boards and five helpers in the second game.  
• In the second win over Green Bay, he was back in double figures for the first time in four games scoring 10 points and registering nine boards with four assists.
• At Oakland, he scored seven points and had seven boards in game one and then handed out six assists in the win, while at Youngstown State in game two, he netted 14 points. 

 
SOMETHING TO PROVE

• A transfer from St. Bonaventure, Matt Johnson has scored in double digits eight times, grabbed at least five rebounds in seven games and handed out at least three assists in three contests. 
• He also has three 20-point performances including a career-high 24 his last time out against Purdue Fort Wayne as he was a career-best 9-of-14 with six 3-pointers to go with six boards. 
• In his last five games, he is tallying 12.4 points on 57.5% shooting (23-of-40) and 50.0% from three (12-of-24) and that was after being held scoreless in his prior two games. 
• He certainly made a name for himself in his debut tallying a then career-high 20 points going 7-of-14 from the field and 4-of-6 from three with five rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal at No. 8 Michigan State.
• He came right back to score 15 at Notre Dame with five rebounds and an assist at Notre Dame, pulled down seven rebounds with a career-best five steals against Kent State and tied his then career-high with 20 points and recorded a collegiate-best eight boards against Wright State. 
• His previous career-high in scoring was just 12 points at George Washington last season as a member of St. Bonaventure, where he scored just 37 points all year. season.

THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS

• The Titans dominated the glass their last time out against Purdue Fort Wayne to the tune of a season-best +14 margin (37-23), which included 14 offensive rebounds. 
• It was the sixth time this season Detroit Mercy has won the rebounding battle and the +14 was the best since outworking Youngstown State by 15 in the first round of the 2016 Horizon League Tournament. 
• Overall, the Titans are 10th in the HL in rebounding at 32.8 per night. 

WHAT A SHOOTING PERFORMANCE

• In the Titans' 86-61 win over Green Bay on Jan. 15, Detroit Mercy posted one of its best offensive efforts in school history.
• The red, white and blue tied a school record for 3-pointers with 17 and also shot 66.0% in the game (31-of-47), 62.5% in the first half and 69.6% in the second half. 
• The 66.0% shooting was the best by the Titans since registering 68.2% (30-of-44) at Youngstown in an 83-70 victory in 2015.