DETROIT (1/23/2023) -- Graduate senior
Damezi Anderson scored a career-high 22 points, but the Titans could not overcome a 20-point first-half deficit as the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team dropped a 76-67 decision to rival Oakland on Monday.
Anderson was 10-of-17 from the field with six rebounds and two assists. Graduate senior
A.J. Oliver scored a season-high 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting with four triples and tied his season-best with nine boards, while graduate senior
Antoine Davis had 14 points and a game-high eight assists.
The Titans (8-13, 4-6 HL) trailed Oakland (9-12, 7-3 HL) by 20 in the first half, 34-14, but cut that down to just two, 50-48, in the second half as Anderson had a jumper and then knocked in a three midway through the period.
The Golden Grizzlies would respond with seven-straight points for a nine-point advantage. Later on, senior
Gerald Liddell went inside for a score and a jumper from Davis had the team down by just four, 58-54, at the 4:15 mark.
Detroit Mercy had one final push as Liddell went inside for a bucket and was fouled, and his free throw made it a six-point game, 65-59, with 1:36 left, but that was as close as the Titans got.
Liddell had nine points and seven rebounds and graduate senior
TJ Moss recorded two points, five assists and two boards.
Both teams struggled on offense to start the contest as the Titans were 5-of-14 and the Golden Grizzles 4-of-13 in the first nine minutes as the game was tied at 10-10.
Oakland was able to go on a run and led 34-14 with just over three minutes left. That is when Davis and Oliver nailed back-to-back 3-pointers. Davis would end the half with five-straight points on a triple and two free throws as the Titans were down 38-25 at the break.
The Titans looked to make a run to start the second half as Oliver hit from distance to cut it to 10 and then another trey and a bucket made it a seven-point game, 40-33, with 17:33 remaining.
Detroit Mercy inched closer as Anderson had an offensive rebound and putback and then connected on a three to trim the deficit to five, 46-41, with 12:30 left, and, eventually, the Titans got within two at 50-48.
The red, white and blue shot 38.8% from the field with eight 3-pointers and was a perfect 7-of-7 at the line.
Detroit Mercy will hit the road this weekend as the red, white and blue visit Robert Morris on Friday and Youngstown State on Sunday.
Game Notes:
- Oakland now leads the series, 18-14, while the Titans are 12-9 at home in the match-up
- Detroit Mercy came into the game second in the Horizon League and 37th in the nation in free-throw percentage at 75.4%
- The Titans came into the contest third in the HL and 60th in the nation averaging just 11.5 turnovers per contest
- Davis tied Bradley's Hersey Hawkins (1984-88) for 14th in NCAA history with 1,100 field goals
- Davis was in double figures in scoring for the 132nd time in his career as he is approaching the all-time mark for double figures, held by Creighton's Doug McDermott (2010-14) at 135
- Davis is the highest active scorer in the country in total points with 3,288, 379 behind Pete Maravich's NCAA-record 3,667
- Davis has made a three in 127 of his 132 collegiate games and upped his NCAA record to 523
- Davis came into the game third in the Horizon League and 20th in DI at 89.6% and owns the school record at 88.9% (565-of-635), seventh among active players and tied for 22nd all-time in NCAA history, while his 565 free throws are also first in school history
- Davis is fifth in Titan history with 546 assists, two shy of Rashad Phillips for fourth place and 69 in back of Kevin McAdoo's school-record 615
- Anderson recorded back-to-back 20-point games as he just had a career-high 20 at IUPUI
- Anderson has NOW scored in double figures in 10 games on the year and also has 12 games with four or more rebounds, with a career-high nine against Rochester and at Cleveland State
- Moss has now posted at least three assists 11 times on the season
- Oliver's previous season high was 14 against Robert Morris, while he also had nine rebounds at Eastern Michigan
- Oliver's career-high is 21 points against FAU as a member of ODU last season
