TULSA, Okla. (12/7/2022) -- Freshman Isaiah Jones go-ahead three-pointer with less than a minute left propelled the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team to a 76-72 victory on the road at Tulsa of the American Athletic Conference on Wednesday.

Senior Gerald Liddell posted his third-straight double-double scoring a game and career-high 27 points with 12 rebounds, three blocks and two steals, going 9-of-20 from the field and 9-of-13 at the free throw line.  

Graduate senior Antoine Davis had 23 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals as he moved to 12th on the NCAA all-time scoring list with 2,965 points, passing Danny Manning (Kansas, 1984-88 - 2,951) and just eight shy of 11th place and Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati, 1957-60 - 2,973). He also hit five 3-pointers to raise his career number to 466, 43 away from the NCAA record. 

The Titans (5-5) trailed by as many as 10 in the opening six minutes of play, but came back to tie the game on two occasions in the first half. The second half featured six ties and 10 lead changes, but with Tulsa (2-6) ahead 72-70 with under a minute to go, Davis was able to find a wide-open Jones and the rookie buried it to put the team in front 73-72. 

Davis and junior Jayden Stone would hit free throws down the stretch to seal the win, and the defense forced the Golden Hurricane to miss their final three shots from the field as the Titans ended the contest on a 6-0 run. 

Graduate senior Damezi Anderson recorded seven points and five rebounds and graduate senior TJ Moss posted six points and a career-best six boards. 

Detroit Mercy shot 38.5% from the field with seven triples and were 19-of-26 at the line, but the Titans won the rebounding battle 41-39 on the strength of 18 offensive rebounds, leading to season-high 25 second-chance points. 

The Titans got behind by 10, 14-4, nearly six minutes into the game when Liddell had an offensive layup and putback and Davis nailed a three. Two free throws from Liddell would cut it to 14-11 with 12:55 left. The Titans would also trail by three at 18-15 after another triple by Davis with 10:53 on the clock.

Detroit Mercy tied the score twice, first with a 6-0 run at 27-27 as Liddell had four points and Moss found Anderson inside, and his basket knotted it with 3:58 left. It was also tied at 29-29 as freshman Marcus Tankersley made a pair of free throws with 3:02 remaining before Liddell ended the half with a basket to get the Titans within three at the break, 39-36.

Tulsa led by five, 42-37, when Liddell had a basket and was fouled, hitting the free throw and Moss hit a jumper early in the second half. Davis would briefly give the Titans the lead at 46-45 with a three, but Tulsa came back to reclaim a five-point advantage at 53-48 with 12:39 left. 

The Titans would surge back in front with a 9-0 run as Jones and Moss had back-to-back baskets, the latter off an offensive rebound, and Liddel was fouled, hitting his first free throw but missing his second as Jones got the rebound and got it back to Liddell as his bucket gave the red, white and blue a 55-53 advantage. Another offensive carom, this one by graduate senior A.J. Oliver, then saw Davis connect on a jumper for a 57-53 lead with 9:52 to go.

The Titans led by four, 60-56, with 9:05 left, but the two teams would trade the lead four more times with four ties in the next seven minutes, with Tulsa hitting a three for a 72-70 score at the 2:03 mark. 

Detroit Mercy will now finish the week with another long road trip as it travels to Charlotte on Saturday. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. 

Game Notes:

• The Titans have won three in a row over Tulsa, but the Golden Hurricane still leads the all-time series 11-7 and 8-1 at home
• Detroit Mercy and Tulsa were once rivals in the Missouri Valley Conference in the 1950's and had not met since 1961
• Detroit Mercy is now 30-43 all-time against current members of the American Athletic Conference
• The 19 free throws and 26 attempts are the second most on the season behind the 24-of-34 effort against Rochester in the season opener
• The win was the 50th for head coach Mike Davis at Detroit Mercy and #402 in his career
• Davis now has 2,965 points, tops in school and Horizon League history, 12th in NCAA history (35 shy of becoming the 11th player to score 3,000 points), and 702 away from Pete Maravich's NCAA-record 3,667 
• Davis now has 85 career 20-point games, 26 career 30-point outings and four 40-point contests in 121 games - reaching double digits in all of them to extend his NCAA record in that category
• Davis comes into the game fifth all-time in NCAA history with 3.85, three-point field goals per game and has made a three in 116 of his 121 collegiate games with 66 career games with four or more triples, 23 with six or more, 10 games with seven or more, and has thrice connected on 10 in his career, tying a school record as well as breaking a conference tournament record
• Davis now has 510 career assists, passing Jermaine Jackson (1996-99) for fifth in school history and 38 behind fourth-place Rashad Phillips (1998-01)
• Liddell's career-high in points was 22 at North Carolina Central last year
• Liddell has at least two steals in all three of his games so far
• The last Titan with three-straight double-doubles was Paris Bass, now playing in the NBA G-League with Salt Lake City, who had four-straight late in the 2015-16 season
• Moss' career-high in rebounds was five against Charlotte two weeks ago
• Anderson has pulled down at least four rebounds in six games on the season
• Jones is the reigning Horizon League Freshman of the Week after tallying 14.0 points and 5.5 rebounds at Purdue Fort Wayne and at Cleveland State, where he scored 17 points, connecting on five triples 

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