DETROIT (2/23/2023) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team cut a big first-half deficit into a second-half lead, but couldn't finish off the comeback as the Titans were upended by NKU, 67-64, on Thursday night on Dick Vitale Court at Calihan Hall.
Graduate senior
Antoine Davis - who was named to the Horizon League All-Academic Team for the second-straight season earlier in the day - led the way with a game-high 27 points and a team-high five assists. He now has 3,570 career points, 97 shy of Pete Maravich's NCAA record 3,667, and also extended his school record for 3-pointers to 144, tied for seventh in NCAA history and 18 away from the single-season mark of 162 by Stephen Curry in 2007-08.
Graduate senior
A.J. Oliver had 16 points and six rebounds and sophomore
Jamail Pink had a career-high seven points.
The loss eliminated the opportunity for a first-round bye, but with Purdue Fort Wayne losing as well, the Titans clinched a first-round home playoff game as they can finish no higher than sixth and no lower than eighth in the standings.
The Titans (13-17, 9-10 HL) once trailed NKU (18-12, 13-6 HL) by 16 in the first half but came back to take a two-point lead at 50-48 off an Oliver three at 11:03 and 52-50 with two Davis free throws with 10 minutes left. The Norse would take a five-point lead at 59-54, but the Titans came right back as Pink and Oliver knocked in treys for a 60-59 advantage with 3:42 to go.
The game would be tied at 62-62 with two minutes left, but NKU would end the game by scoring five of the last seven points in the contest.
Senior
Gerald Liddell ended with four points and six rebounds and freshman
Isaiah Jones had two points and five boards.
The Titans won the rebounding battle, 40-26, and were 15-of-21 at the line, while shooting 37.0% with nine triples.
The Titans got off to a slow start as NKU hit six of its first eight shots and had a 15-2 lead seven minutes in. The Norse were up 21-7 when Davis nailed a three and hit two free throws to trim the deficit to 21-12 with 8:12 on the clock.
NKU went back up by double digits after that and took a 37-23 lead at the break.
The Titans started to get their offense going in the second half as Oliver made two from the line and then a jumper by him cut it to 39-27. Davis would bury back-to-back triples and a three by Oliver had the team down by just seven, 43-36. Two free throws from Davis and a basket got the red, white and blue even closer at 43-30 with 14 minutes to go and then Jones came up with an offensive rebound and putback to make it a one-point game at 43-42 with 13:34 left.
A little more than a minute later, Oliver connected from distance, and graduate senior
Arashma Parks had an offensive rebound and putback and the red, white and blue were ahead, 47-46.
The Titans will now look to close out the regular season with a home win over Wright State as they battle the Raiders on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The contest will feature a special sale. Buy four or more tickets and get 50.0% off your order using code MBB50OFF. To purchase tickets,
click here or visit DetroitTitans.com/Tix.
Game Notes:
- NKU leads the overall series, 13-4, and is 5-2 in Calihan Hall
- Detroit Mercy has outrebounded its opponents 21 times on the season and in nine-straight games - by an average of 10.5 in that span with five games of +11 or more in the last six
- The Titans have connected on double-digit free throws in 20 games on the season as they came into the game second in the Horizon League and 13th in the nation in free-throw percentage at 77.2%
- Davis came into the game averaging 21.7 points against NKU, the lowest total versus any Horizon League school in his career, although he did have 29 in the first meeting this season and 33, 27 and 30 in three games as a freshman
- Davis currently leads the nation in scoring (27.9 ppg.), total points (836), total 3-pointers (144), 3-pointers per game (4.63) and total field goals (269)
- Davis now has 102 career 20-point games, 38 career 30-point outings and eight 40-point contests in 140 games - reaching 17 points in 123 of them
- Davis now has a league-best 25, 20-point games, 12, 30-point outings and four 40-point outbursts on the season, with the four 40-point games the most since Campbell's Chris Clemons' four in 2018-19
- Davis came into the game third all-time in NCAA history with 4.06, three-point field goals per game and leading the nation this year at 4.83 per contest as he now has 19 games on the year with four or more 3-pointers and has made a three in 136 of his 141 collegiate games, with 79 career games with four or more triples, 32 with six or more, 17 games with seven or more, and has five times connected on 10 or more
- Davis is third in Titan history with 580 assists, 31 behind second-place Wilbert McCormick (611) and 35 in back of school-record holder Kevin McAdoo's 615 as he is just the second player in NCAA history to amass 3,000 points and 500 assists, joining St. Peter's Keydren Clark (2002-06)
- Oliver has scored in double figures in five-straight games and 11 times on the year
- In his last seven games - where he has scored in double figures six times - he is posting 14.3 points and 5.4 rebounds, hitting 52.5% from the field (32-of-61), 13-of-29 (44.8%) from three and 23-of-25 (92.0%) at the line
- Pink came into the game with seven career points and his only other three was at Robert Morris this season
