DETROIT (2/25/2023) -- Graduate senior Antoine Davis poured in a team-high 34 points and crossed 3,600 in his career, but a second-half comeback fell short as the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team fell, 82-71, to Wright State on Saturday.

With the regular season coming to an end, the Titans now know they will host Purdue Fort Wayne on Tuesday in the first round of the Barbasol Horizon League Basketball Championships. 

The Titans honored their seven-member senior class prior to the start in Damezi Anderson, Antoine Davis, Buay Koka, Gerald Liddell, TJ Moss, A.J. Oliver and Arashma Parks. Following the conclusion, Davis became the 11th men's basketball player in school history to have his jersey retired. 

The nation's leading scorer now has 3,604 career points, 63 shy of Pete Maravich's NCAA record 3,667. He also raised his school record to 149, 3-pointers, moving to sixth in NCAA history and 13 away from the single-season mark of 162 by Stephen Curry in 2007-08. 

Liddell tallied his ninth double-double of the year with 13 points and 15 rebounds, along with three assists, a block and a steal and Oliver added 10 points, five boards and two steals. 

Detroit Mercy (13-18, 9-11 HL) trailed by 10, 72-62, with under four minutes to go when it made one final charge at the win. After junior Kyle LeGreair made 1-of-2 at the line, Davis hit a jumper to make it 72-65 with 3:03 left. LeGreair then came up with a steal and that led to a three from Oliver and the Titans were down by just four, 72-68, at the 2:48 mark.

Wright State (17-14, 10-10 HL) then went up by eight, but Davis drove to the rim for a layup, and it was 76-70 with 1:48 to go, but that was as close as the red, white and blue would get. 

Moss had six points, three assists and three steals and graduate senior Anderson scored five points and pulled down five boards. 

Detroit Mercy once again won the rebounding total, 40-33, and came away with eight steals. 

The game was tied a few times early on, but Wright State jumped out to a 17-9 lead midway through the half. The Titans cut that to five, 19-14, as Davis hit a three with 8:33 on the clock and then by three at 19-16 as Liddell had an offensive rebound and layup. 

WSU ran its lead to as many as 11, 27-16, but a layup from Davis and a triple by Oliver trimmed the deficit to 29-23 with 3:49 to go. Later on, Liddell split a pair at the line to make it 29-24, but Wright State took a 35-27 advantage at the break. 

The Titans started to chip away in the second half again as a basket by Davis plus a foul made it 39-33. Later on, an offensive rebound and putback by freshman Isaiah Jones and a free throw from Moss had the score at 47-41. 

Davis would nail a triple to pull the team within five, 51-46, with 12:42 left and Oliver did the same with a trey at 11:43 for a 54-49 score. Two minutes later, the Titans made it a one-possession game as Liddell split another pair of free throws and Davis lined up another three for a 56-53 game with 9:40 remaining. 

That is when the Raiders pushed the advantage to 10 four times before the last comeback attempt. 

The first round of the Barbasol Horizon League Basketball Championship will tip at 7:00 p.m., the third straight year the Titans will have hosted a playoff game.  

Game Notes: 

• Wright State leads the all-time series, 39-28, winning 12 of the last 14 and 19 of the last 24, while the Titans are 16-15 all-time at home
• The 10 other Titans to have their jersey retired are #3 - Rashad Phillips, #17 - Bob Calihan, #22 - Dave DeBusschere, #24 - Earl Cureton, #32 - Eli Holman, #34 - Willie Green, #42 - Terry Duerod, #44 - Terry Tyler, #45 - Spencer Haywood and #50 - John Long
• Detroit Mercy has outrebounded its opponents 22 times on the season and in 10-straight games - by an average of 9.8 in that span, with five games of +11 or more in the last seven contests
• Davis currently leads the nation in scoring (28.1 ppg.), total points (870), total 3-pointers (149), 3-pointers per game (4.83) and total field goals (282)
• The only Titan to ever lead the nation in a NCAA statistic was Spencer Haywood, who averaged 22.1 rebounds in 1968-69, while his current rate of 28.1 points would be the second-highest in school history behind Haywood's 32.1 and the highest in HL history, ahead of the 27.6 by Hughes in 1983-84
• Davis now has 103 career 20-point games, 39 career 30-point outings and eight 40-point contests in 142 games - reaching 17 points in 124 of them
• Davis comes 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
• Davis now has 20 games on the year with four or more 3-pointers and has made a three in 137 of his 142 collegiate games, with 80 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 can not only score, but he can get his teammates involved as he is third in Titan history with 584 assists, 27 behind second-place Wilbert McCormick (611) and 31 in back-of-school record holder Kevin McAdoo's 615
• Liddell's nine double-doubles are the most since Kameron Chatman'S IN 2017-18
• Liddell now has double-digit rebounding games in two of the last four outings and is averaging 9.4 rebounds in the last four
• Liddell has now scored in double figures in 17 games on the season 
• Liddell has blocked at least one shot in 13 games on the year
• Liddell is currently not eligible for national statistical leaders due to games played, but in Horizon League play, he is fifth in rebounding (8.9), 15th in scoring (13.9) and 12th in field-goal percentage (45.7%) 
• Anderson now has 16 games on the year with four or more rebounds, with a career-high nine against Rochester and at Cleveland State
• Oliver has scored in double figures in six-straight games and 12th times on the year 
• Oliver has posted at least five boards in 15 games, including five straight

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