DETROIT (12/29/2022) -- Senior
Gerald Liddell powered his way to his seventh-straight double-double and graduate senior
Antoine Davis scored a game-high 24 points as the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team raced passed Green Bay, 76-59, on Thursday night at Calihan Hall.
It was the annual Titan Reggie Memorial game as the Titan Reggie Spirit of Detroit Mercy Award was handed out to former Titan men's basketball student-athlete Dan Kennedy at halftime.
With his 24 points, Davis moved to seventh place in NCAA history with 3,072 points, while adding three assists, a rebound and a steal. Liddell tallied 19 points and 11 rebounds and blocked a season-tying three shots, while graduate senior
Damezi Anderson posted 15 points, six boards and two steals.
Detroit Mercy (6-8, 2-1 HL) trailed briefly at 2-0, but opened it up with a 17-6 run. The Titans then ended the half with five-straight points for a 37-26 lead at the break.
In the second half, the Titans ran their lead to as many as 19 early on, but Green Bay (2-12, 1-2 HL) would cut that to eight, 48-40, with 12:46 left. Detroit Mercy regained control with a 9-1 spurt over the next four minutes and would up its lead to as many as 22 before settling for the 17-point victory.
Junior
Jayden Stone had seven points, seven rebounds and four assists. Graduate senior
TJ Moss added four points, a team-high five assists and three rebounds and graduate senior
A.J. Oliver netted five points and pulled down seven caroms.
The Titans trailed only 2-0 and then the game was tied at 6-6 as Anderson knocked in a pair of 3-pointers. The Titans then went on a 17-6 spurt to go up 23-12 midway through the period. The defense forced four turnovers in that span, and an offensive rebound and putback from Oliver and four free throws from Davis capped the run.
Later on, back-to-back baskets from Liddell gave the team their most significant lead of the first half at 12, 28-16, with 5:42 left. The Phoenix trimmed that to five, but two free throws from Davis and a trey gave the Titans a 37-26 advantage at the break.
Liddell started the second half with a jumper that was followed by a triple from Oliver to make it 42-26. Another jumper from Liddell and an offensive rebound and score from Moss had the Titans up 48-32 with 15:39 left, but Green Bay would net eight-straight points in the next three minutes.
From there, Moss and Liddell scored inside, the latter off another offensive rebound, and Davis buried one from behind the arc to increase the lead to 55-40 midway through the period. Davis would then set up Stone for an inside score and another trifecta from Oliver had the Titans up 19, 62-43, with 6:38 on the clock.
Davis would later nail a three for a 20-point lead, 70-50, with 4:01 remaining, before Anderson would score off his offensive rebound and Davis connected on a shot off a Liddell offensive board for the Titans' largest lead of 22, 76-54, with just over two minutes to go.
Detroit Mercy shot 41.8% from the field with eight triples and was 12-of-13 (92.3%) at the free-throw line. The Titans outrebounded the Phoenix, 43-28, and had 19 offensive boards, while forcing 13 turnovers and holding Green Bay to 3-of-19 from the outside.
The Titans will be right back on Dick Vitale Court on Saturday as the red, white and blue host Milwaukee at Noon. Tickets start at just $10 and a number of ticket packages are available by
clicking here.
Game Notes:
- The Titans have won four of the last five against Green Bay, but still trail the all-time series, 35-30, despite an 18-13 advantage at home
- The Titans have now won 20 of their last 21 overall on Dick Vitale Court and 14 of the last 15 against Horizon League foes, with two of those in the Horizon League Championship first round
- Detroit Mercy has outrebounded its opponents in five of the last six games and eight times on the season
- The Titans came into the game leading the HL and 43rd in DI with 12.69 offensive boards per game
- The 19 offensive rebounds are the second most on the season behind the 20 they had at Cleveland State
- Davis came into the contest second in the nation in scoring at 24.2 points and averaging 27.0 points, 4.2 assists and 3.0 rebounds in eight previous games against the Phoenix
- Davis' 3,072 points is 78 behind Doug McDermott (Creighton, 2010-14- 3,150) for sixth place in NCAA history and 93 shy of the top five, and 595 away from Pete Maravich's NCAA record 3,667
- Davis now has 88 career 20-point games, 28 career 30-point outings and four 40-point contests in 125 games - reaching 17 points in 111 of them as he has 11, 20-point games and two 30-point outings this year
- Davis has now made a three in 120 of his 125 collegiate games and is currently third in NCAA history in 3-pointers at 486, 18 away from Oakland's Travis Bader for second and 23 away from Fletcher Magee's NCAA-record 509
- Davis currently owns the school record at the free-throw line at 88.6% (530-of-598), ninth among active players and tied for 27th all-time in NCAA history, as his 530 career free throws are 11 behind Rashad Phillips (1998-01) for the all-time Titan leader
- Liddell has started his Titan career with a double-double in seven-straight games, the first Titan to have seven-straight since Ryvon Covile '07 had seven in a row to end the 2006-07 season
- Liddell's seven double-doubles are tied for 10th in the NCAA
- Liddell has at least two steals in five games and has blocked at least one shot in all seven, with a season-high three at Tulsa and against Green Bay
- Anderson came into the game fifth in the HL with 2.23 triples per game
- Anderson has now scored in double figures in seven games on the year and also has nine games with four or more rebounds
- Anderson's career high in points is 17 against Rochester
- Oliver has pulled down at least five rebounds in six games on the year
- Moss has handed out at least three assists in three-straight games and seven times on the season
