YPSILANTI, Mich. (12/18/2022) -- Graduate senior
Antoine Davis scored a game-high 30 points and the Titans erased an early 14-point deficit but couldn't finish off the comeback as the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team fell, 79-77, at Eastern Michigan on Sunday.
Davis was 10-of-23 from the field, 5-of-12 from three and 5-of-5 at the free-throw line as he recorded back-to-back 30-point games for the sixth time in his career.
Senior
Gerald Liddell posted his fifth-straight double-double with 18 points and a game-high 14 rebounds and tied his career-high with four steals, while graduate senior
A.J. Oliver tied his season-high with 12 points and pulled down a season-best nine boards.
The Titans (5-7) trailed 40-26 in the first half, but started chipping away and would take the lead on a few occasions in the second half. Eastern Michigan (3-9) would make one final push in the last few minutes to take a 76-72 lead. Davis would hit a three with four seconds left to get the team within one, 78-77, and the Titans would have one final heave at the basket as time expired, but it rimmed out.
Graduate senior
Damezi Anderson had eight points and seven rebounds and graduate senior
TJ Moss and junior
Kyle LeGreair each had a team-high three assists.
The game was back and forth early on as back-to-back 3-pointers from Davis and Anderson gave the Titans a 12-10 lead four minutes in. The Titans would later lead by four, 19-15, as Anderson got inside for a layup and Davis buried a triple at the 11:31 mark.
The Eagles came back, but a three by Moss knotted it at 22-22 with nine minutes to go. EMU then went on an 18-4 run over the next seven minutes to take a 40-26 advantage and went into the half up 47-37.
Oliver nailed a three early in the second half to make it an eight-point deficit, 52-44, with 17:22 on the clock, but the Eagles would push their lead back to 12, 56-44. That is when the Titans went on a 14-4 run to make it a one-score game. Liddell started it with two free throws and a dunk and after an EMU 3-pointer, Oliver hit another three for a 59-51 margin. Davis then connected on a couple of treys and after he came away with his fourth steal, two more free throws from Liddell had the team down by just two, 60-58, with 11:42 remaining.
The Titans took a brief lead at 62-61 after buckets from Oliver, off an offensive rebound, and Liddell and again at 67-65 as Anderson knocked in a three-ball and Davis made two free throws with 6:05 left.
Davis would twice give Detroit Mercy a three-point lead as his triple made it 70-67 and again at 72-69 with a jumper with 3:16 on the scoreboard. EMU answered with seven-straight points and the Titans could not make one final push for the win.
Detroit Mercy connected on 12, 3-pointers in the contest and was also 13-of-15 at the line. The Titans also won the rebounding battle 42-38 and forced 13 turnovers.
Detroit Mercy will now get ready for its final non-conference game as the red, white and blue head to ACC-member Cincinnati on Wednesday.
Game Notes:
- Detroit Mercy still leads the all-time series, 59-21, including 27-15 all-time on the road
- This was the 80th meeting between the two schools, the fourth-most against any opponent in Titan history, while the 59 wins are the most against any foe in school history
- Detroit Mercy is now 184-125 all-time against current members of the MAC
- Detroit Mercy has outrebounded its opponents in its last four games and seven times on the season
- The Titans grabbed 16 offensive rebounds as they came into the day leading the HL and 63rd in the nation with 12.4 offensive boards per game
- The red, white and blue have connected on double-digit 3-pointers in nine games on the year, with a season-high 17 at Charlotte its last time out as they lead the Horizon League and are 32nd in the nation at 39.0% from three as well as second in the league and 15th in the country with 10.4 triples per game
- Davis now has 87 career 20-point games, 287 career 30-point outings and four 40-point contests in 123 games - reaching 17 points in 109 of them
- Davis passed Bradley's Hersey Hawkins (1984-88-3,008) for 10th in NCAA history with 3,031 and is now 27 behind St. Peter's Keydren Clark (2002-06-3,058) for ninth place and 636 away from Pete Maravich's NCAA record 3,667
- Davis comes into the game fifth all-time in NCAA history with 3.90, three-point field goals per game and now has 68 career games with four or more triples, 24 with six or more, 11 games with seven or more, and has four ties connected on 10 in his career, tying a school record as well as breaking a conference tournament record.
- Davis is currently third in NCAA history in 3-pointers at 481, 23 away from Oakland's Travis Bader for second and 28 away from Fletcher Magee's NCAA-record 509
- Liddell now has five-straight double-doubles, with the last Titan to accomplish that in five-straight games Ryvon Covile '07, who had seven-straight double-doubles to end the 2006-07 season
- Oliver also had 12 points against Rochester in the season opener, while his career-high in rebounds is 12 against Texas-San Antonio in 2020 as a member of Old Dominion
- Anderson now has seven games with four or more rebounds on the season with a career-high nine against Rochester and at Cleveland State
