CLEVELAND (12/3/2022) -- Playing without three starters, the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team dropped a 92-77 contest on the road at Cleveland State on Saturday afternoon.
Detroit Mercy (4-5, 1-1 HL) was without the services of graduate senior
A.J. Oliver, senior
Jordan Phillips and junior
Jayden Stone due to illness and injuries.
Graduate senior
Antoine Davis led the way with 23 points, while adding five rebounds and three assists. Senior
Gerald Liddell tallied 18 points and a game-high 13 rebounds and freshman
Isaiah Jones posted a season-high 17 points and seven boards.
The Titans got off to a slow start as, after Liddell scored the opening basket, Cleveland State (6-3, 2-0 HL) went on an 18-0 run in the first eight minutes. Detroit Mercy was 1-of-7 from the field with seven turnovers in that span, but then Davis hit two free throws and Liddell hit a three.
CSU then led by 18 at 31-13 when the Titans started chipping away going on a 7-0 run. Liddell started that with two free throws and a three and Davis hit a jumper.
The Vikings would extend their lead to 18 again, 44-26, with 3:14 left when the red, white and blue ended the half on a 10-1 spurt to make it a nine-point game at the break. Freshman
Marcus Tankersley started it with an offensive rebound and tip-in and which was followed by two free throws from Davis. Graduate senior
Damezi Anderson hit a three, and with under 20 seconds left in the half, the Titans crashed the glass for three offensive caroms that ended with another three from Anderson, and it was 45-36 at the break.
In the second half, the Titans cut the deficit to seven on a few occasions, the first at 55-48 as Tankersley had an offensive rebound and layup and Davis hit a floater with 14:13 left. Three minutes later, Davis attacked the rim for a bucket and was fouled, and his free throw made it 59-52 with 11:57 left.
Detroit Mercy ran out of gas after that as the Vikings ran their advantage to as many as 24.
Tankersley ended the contest with a season-high 10 points and five rebounds, and Anderson recorded eight points and tied his career-best with nine boards.
The Titans shot 38.3% from the field with 10 triples and were 15-of-21 at the free-throw line, while outrebounding Cleveland State 44-31.
Detroit Mercy will get back into non-conference play next week as the Titans travel to Tulsa on Dec. 7 and to Charlotte on Dec. 10.
Game Notes:
- The Titans still lead the series, 46-29, but are 14-22 all-time on the road.
- The Titans came into the game leading the Horizon League and 13th in the nation at 40.8% from three as well as second in the league and 29th in the country with 10.0 triples per game
- The +13 rebound margin was the most since registering a +13 at Robert Morris last season
- Davis now has 84 career 20-point games, 26 career 30-point outings and four 40-point contests in 120 games - reaching 17 points in 106 of them
- Davis now has 2,942 career points, nine away from Danny Manning's (Kansas, 1984-88) 2,951 for 12th in school history, 58 away from becoming the 11th player in NCAA history to reach 3,000 career points and 747 behind Pete Maravich's NCAA-record 3,667
- Davis has made a three in 115 of his 120 collegiate games and his 461 career triples are third in NCAA history, 48 behind Fletcher Magee's NCAA record of 509
- Davis now has 507 career assists, two away from the top five and 108 behind the all-time record of 615 by Kevin McAdoo
- The last Titan with back-to-back double-doubles was Madut Akec, who did it last year in wins over Western Michigan and Central Michigan
- Anderson also had nine rebounds against Rochester
- Jones scored 11 at Purdue Fort Wayne on Thursday and had played just three minutes in one game prior to that
- The last freshman to hit five 3-pointers in a game was in 2018-19 when Willy Isiani did it once and Davis on multiple occasions
- Tankersley had just two points in four games coming into the contest
