DETROIT (2/6/2021) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team extended its winning streak to five games on Saturday with a dominating second-half performance as the Titans swept Purdue Fort Wayne from Calihan Hall by a 83-56 margin. The Titans (8-8, 7-5 Horizon League) out-scored the Mastodons, 48-27, in the second half in the home victory.

Senior guard Matt Johnson scored a career-high 24 points, hitting six 3-pointers and shooting 9-of-14 from the floor, while junior guard Antoine Davis scored a game-high 26 points, adding four assists and three steals for the Titans in the win. Graduates Marquell Fraser and Bul Kuol were also in double figures with 10 points each. Fraser had four assists and Kuol recorded three steals. Junior forward Chris Brandon posted seven points and a team-high eight rebounds as Detroit Mercy dominated the rebounding battle, 37-23.

The Titans shot efficiently from the floor again, hitting 52.4% of their shots (11-of-21) in the first half and 44.6% overall (25-for-56) in the contest. Detroit Mercy knocked down double-digit 3-pointers again, hitting 12 in the contest and shot at a high-clip from the free throw line, sinking 21-of-23 (91.3%).

Detroit Mercy went on an 8-2 run to close out the first half and lead 35-29 at the halftime break as Davis (14 points) and Johnson (10 points) combined for 24 points in the opening 20 minutes and also combining to hit all four Titan 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes of play. The Titans would never relinquish the lead after the late first-half run.

The Titans scored the first six points of the second half as Davis knocked down a 3-pointer and Brandon followed with the next three points as Detroit Mercy went ahead by double figures, 41-29, just two minutes into the stanza. The red, white and blue led by as many as 34 points in the second half in the standout second-half performance.

Fraser scored on two old-fashioned 3-point plays early in the second half and Johnson scored eight-straight points, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers in a span of 30 seconds as the Titans led 55-33 just 5:30 into the second half. After Purdue Fort Wayne (6-11, 5-11 HL) following with five-straight points, the Titans went on a 14-2 run to extend their lead to 69-40 with 9:36 remaining.

Johnson later on made his sixth 3-pointer of the game and the Titans sank seven-straight free throws, five by Kuol, as Detroit Mercy again extended their advantage, this time to 81-47 with 6 minutes left, the largest lead of the contest for the home squad.

The Titans return to the road next weekend, playing a pair of contests at Cleveland State on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12-13. Friday's contest against the Vikings is set for 9:00 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

First Half:

• The Titans scored nine points in the opening 5 minutes with Johnson hitting a 3-pointer as the Titans led 9-6 early
• Davis connected on his first 3-pointer at the 14:15 mark as Detroit Mercy led 12-8
• The defenses were up to the task over the next few minutes as the Titans held a 14-10 lead at the under-12 media timeout
• Davis then fed Johnson for a lay-up out of the timeout as the Titans went ahead 16-10 with 11:37 on the clock
• The Mastodons scored the next five and the teams traded field goals in the next several minutes with Johnson and Fraser making buckets
• The teams were knotted 22-22 with 5 minutes left in the half, but Davis made a pair of free throws to break the tie
• After a Mastodons' bucket, Davis drilled his second 3-pointer of the first half
• Purdue Fort Wayne answered with a trey as the teams were tied 27-27 at the final media timeout before the break
• Waterman scored the next three on a lay-up and sinking 1-of-2 free throws and then added a block at the 1:44 mark
• Johnson hit a corner 3-pointer and Davis sank a driving lay-up as the Titans went on an 8-0 run late in the half
• The Titans shot 52.4% (11-of-21) from the floor and 90% (9-of-10) at the line in the opening 20 minutes
• Detroit Mercy had six steals in the first half, three from Kuol

Second Half:

• Davis opened the second half with his third 3-pointer of the game as the Titans went up 38-29
• The Titans then went ahead by 11 after Brandon scored on a lay-up off a feed from Kuol
• Kuol knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the arc as Detroit Mercy led 44-32
• Fraser converted on a tough and-one lay-up, sinking a free throw to extend the lead
• Johnson hit back-to-back 3-pointers in a span of 30 seconds as the Titans took a 20-point advantage, 53-33
• Johnson then grabbed an offensive board and sank a jumper to extend his points streak to eight
• After two consecutive offensive caroms, Fraser finished on another old-fashioned 3-point play
• Davis scored the next five points on a lay-up and long 3-pointer as the Titans led 63-40
• Johnson knocked down his career-high fifth triple from the corner to extend the lead to 69-40
• Johnson again converted from deep as the Titans went ahead by 30 points, 74-44
• Kuol (5-for-5) and Davis (2-for-2) then combined to make seven-straight from the free throw line as Detroit Mercy led by 34
• Freshman guard Calieb Brown -- in his first collegiate game -- assisted on the final bucket of the game, a dunk by Brandon
• Johnson scored 14 of his career-high 24 points in the second half, hitting four 3-pointers down the stretch
• Detroit Mercy was 12-of-13 from the free throw line in the second half and sank eight 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes

Game Notes:

• The all-time series is now tied at 2-2
• The win was the biggest conference victory since beating Cleveland State, 92-62, in 2013
• The last time the Titans won five in a row was in 2012-13, 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)
• 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
• The Titans have connected on double-digit 3-pointers in six of their last seven games and seven times this season, actually seven times in the last nine games
• The Titans came into the game 12th in Division I in free throw percentage at 78.6%
• It was the eighth game of the year with at least 15 assists
• The +14 rebounding margin was the biggest on the season and snapped a string of three-straight games being outrebounded
• It was the second-straight game and the fifth time this season the Titans have had a pair of 20-point scorers in a game
• Davis has now scored 20 or more in his last eight games and has 54 career 20-point games
• Davis passed Wright State's DaShaun Wood to move into 23rd place in Horizon League history with 1,865 points
• Johnson's previous career high was 20 in the season opener at Michigan State
• Brandon tallied eight rebounds for the third time this season  
• Fraser's seven assists surpassed his career-high of six he had at Oakland
• Freshman Calieb Brown made his collegiate debut and came up with a steal and an assist