DETROIT (1/12/2023) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team cut a 14-point deficit down to just a basket, but couldn't finish it off as the Titans fell, 84-79, on Thursday night.
Graduate senior
Antoine Davis posted a game-high 32 points, his fourth 30-point game of the year, as he was 11-of-22 from the field with three 3-pointers, three rebounds and three assists. The nation's leading scorer moved into fifth place in NCAA history with 3,191 points, passing Alphonso Ford (Mississippi Valley State, 1989-93 - 3,165), and now has 502 career triples, eight away from owning that NCAA mark. In addition, his 11 field goals give him 1,066 in his career, moving to 16th in NCAA history in that category.
Senior
Gerald Liddell returned to action and tallied 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting with six rebounds, two assists and two steals, and freshman
Isaiah Jones recorded eight points and a season-high eight boards.
Youngstown State (13-5, 5-2 HL) led by 14, 65-51, with 10:42 left in the game, but the Titans (6-12, 2-5 HL) kept on attacking and a three by Davis had the team down just 80-77 with under a minute to go. They would get even closer as two free throws by Davis made it 81-79 with 29 seconds left, but they could not get the equalizer.
Junior
Kyle LeGreair registered seven points, a career-best six rebounds and three assists and graduate senior
TJ Moss scored six points and had five rebounds and two assists.
The Titans got off to a fast start as Moss hit a floater and Liddell knocked in a three for a quick 5-0 lead. Back-to-back layups from Liddell would give the team an 11-4 advantage at the 15:34 mark and Moss went inside again for a jumper to make it 13-6 just six minutes in.
Detroit Mercy would stay ahead by five, 21-16, with 9:36 remaining as LeGreair went inside for a layup and he would later nail a three to make it 24-20 with 8:21 left, but the Penguins scored nine in a row to climb in front, 29-24.
A basket by Liddell and the Titans fought back to make it a two-point contest, 32-30, but YSU went into the break up 40-30.
In the second half, back-to-back 3-pointers from Davis trimmed the Penguins' lead to six, 42-36, and then the Titans got even closer as LeGreair got to the rim for a score and it was 47-42 with 16:06 on the clock.
The Penguins would raise their advantage to 14, 65-41, but the Titans started to chip away as Liddell netted five-straight points. Youngstown State regained control and was up by double digits at 72-59 and 76-64 with 4:50 left.
Davis would score six in a row to cut that in half and the Titans were down by just six again as Jones had an offensive rebound and layup and it was 80-74 with 1:29 showing. The defense held its own twice and that is when Davis nailed a three to make it a one-possession contest at 80-77 with under a minute to go. Two free throws by Davis made it even closer at 81-79, but the red, white and blue could not get any closer.
Detroit Mercy shot 47.8% from the field, but was an uncharacteristic 6-of-23 (26.1%) from behind the arc. The Titans outrebounded the Penguins, 37-30, and had a season-low five turnovers.
The Titans will finish the quick homestand on Saturday as Robert Morris visits Dick Vitale Court and Calihan Hall in a 1:00 p.m. tip. Tickets start at just $10 and can be purchased by
clicking here.
Game Notes:
- Detroit Mercy still leads the all-time series, 40-14, but Youngstown State has won five of the last seven meetings
- Detroit Mercy has outrebounded its opponents in seven of the last 10 games and is third in the HL in rebounding at 36.7 per game
- Davis currently leads the nation in scoring at 25.4 points per game, with the only Titan to ever lead the nation in a NCAA statistic Spencer Haywood, who averaged 22.1 rebounds per game in 1968-69
- The last time the Titans had a game where two players registered at least 10 field goals was Dec. 22, 2003, with James Thues (13-of-16), Jimmy Twyman (11-of-18) reaching the mark in a 95-61 win over Western Illinois
- Davis now has 92 career 20-point games, 30 career 30-point outings and four 40-point contests in 129 games - reaching 17 points in 114 of them
- Davis' 3,191 points are 26 behind Lionel Simmons (La Salle, 1986-90 - 3,217) for fourth, 34 in back of Chris Clemons (Campbell, 2015-19 - 3,225) for third and 476 away from Pete Maravich's NCAA record 3,667
- Davis has now made a three in 124 of his 129 collegiate games, with 70 career games with four or more triples, 25 with six or more, 11 games with seven or more, and has four times 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 503, two away from Oakland's Travis Bader (2010-14) for second and seven away from Fletcher Magee's (2015-19) NCAA-record 509.
- It was Liddell's fourth 20-point game of the season with his season and career-high of 27 at Tulsa
- Liddell now has at least two steals in six of his nine games
- LeGreair has netted 16 points in the last two games, after registering just 13 in his first 16 games, and also has 11 assists in the last four after recording 11 in his first 14 games
- LeGreair's career-high in rebounds was four at Purdue Fort Wayne
- Jones' previous season high in rebounds was seven at Cleveland State
