GAME NOTES

https://detroittitans.com/documents/2023/1/4/MBB_notes_at_Wright_State.pdf

LISTEN TO GAME

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DETROIT (1/4/2023) — It will be a Friday night showdown on national television as the University of Detroit Mercy men’s basketball team visits Wright State in an “Anything Can Happen” #HLMBB contest on ESPN2.

Game time is set for 7:00 p.m., at the Nutter Center with Jordan Bernfield and David Padgett on the call, while the Voice of Detroit Mercy basketball Dan Hasty has the action on WLQV 92.7 FM & 1500 AM FaithTalk Detroit.

The Titans head into the game at 6-9 overall and 2-2 in the Horizon League as they split their home games last week, beating Green Bay and falling to Milwaukee.

Detroit Mercy is led by graduate senior Antoine Davis, who is second in the nation in scoring at 24.6 points per game. He also has 3,103 career points, tops in school and HL history, seventh in NCAA history and 564 away from Pete Maravich’s NCAA record 3,667. He is also just the second player in NCAA history to amass 3,000 points and 500 assists. 

Senior Gerald Liddell has seven double-doubles in his eight games and is averaging 16.8 points and 12.8 rebounds. Meanwhile, Graduate senior TJ Moss is tallying 5.5 points, 4.2 assists and 4.0 rebounds in his last four games after posting 4.1 points, 1.7 assists and 2.1 rebounds in his first 11, and is coming off a season-high 12 points against Milwaukee and season-best six assists and six rebounds at Cincinnati. 

Wright State is 8-7 on the season and 1-3 in league play as the Raiders are coming off an 82-68 victory at IUPUI, with their three conference losses at NKU and at home to Robert Morris and Youngstown State.

Following the game, the red, white and blue will be at NKU on Sunday. 

ALL-TIME SERIES

• Wright State has dominated the series in recent years, winning 10 of the last 12 and 17 of the last 22, although the Titans did claim an 80-75 win at home last year, as the Raiders lead the all-time match-up, 37-28. 
• Wright State has won eight in a row at the Nutter Center as the Raiders are 20-9 all-time at home in the series, with the last Titans triumph back in 2013.

VS. WRIGHT STATE

• Antoine Davis is averaging 23.5 points, 3.6 assists and 3.0 rebounds in eight career games against Wright State, shooting 40.2% overall (66-of-164), 33.3% from three (27-of-81) and 74.4% at the line (29-of-39). A lot of the low numbers are due to the last two years, where he is tallying just 17.7 points in the last four meetings as opposed to 29.2 points in his first four games, which included a Titan freshman record 48 in a win in 2018-19 season. 
• Besides that, only Buay Koka and Kyle LeGreair have seen minimal action against Wright State in their careers.  

TOUGH NON-CONFERENCE SLATE

• The non-conference foes combined to go 178-153 (.532) last season, with four teams reaching the postseason, including the semifinals of the NIT. 
• Ohio and Florida Atlantic made the CBI last year. Bryant earned a berth to the NCAA Tournament, while Washington State advanced to the semifinals of the NIT. 
• This year so far, the non-conference teams are 82-56 (.594), with three teams in the NET top 50 and six in the top 150, led by Florida Atlantic at 12-1, Charlotte at 11-3, Bryant at 10-4 and Cincinnati at 10-5.  

HUSTLE POINTS

• Detroit Mercy has outrebounded its opponents in six of the last seven games and nine times on the season as the Titans are third in the HL in rebounding at 36.8 per game and tops the league and 28th in the nation with 13.07 per contest. 
• The Titans had a +15 effort (43-28) against Green Bay, which included a 19-8 margin on the offensive glass. 
• At Eastern Michigan, Detroit Mercy had a 42-38 advantage on the boards and a 16-11 edge on the offensive glass, with a 14-7 margin on second-chance points. 
• At Charlotte, the Titans won the glass, 33-32, with 13 offensive rebounds, leading to 10 second-chance points. 
• In the win at Tulsa, the Titans won the battle of the boards, 41-39, on the strength of 18 offensive rebounds, which led to a 23-13 second-chance points advantage.
• At Cleveland State, the Titans won the glass, 44-31, with 20 offensive caroms for a 19-10 second-chance points margin.

WHERE WE RANK

• Antoine Davis currently leads the HL and is second in the nation in scoring at 24.6 ppg. He also tops the HL and is second in DI in total 3-pointers (63), leads the conference and is second in total points (369), first in the HL and third in 3-pointers per game (4.2) and first in the conference and fourth overall in field goals (122). His 37:23 minutes a game is also first in the league and fourth in the country. 
• Graduate senior Damezi Anderson is fifth in the HL with 2.2 triples per game, and senior Gerald Liddell’s seven double-doubles are first in the league and eighth in the nation.
• A note on Liddell is that he is not eligible for league and nation leaders due to games played; otherwise, his 12.8 rebounds per game would be second in the country.

FROM THREE

• The red, white and blue have connected on double-digit triples in 10 games, with a season-high 17 at Charlotte, one shy of the school record. 
• Detroit Mercy also hit 15 against Bryant, in just 24 attempts for 62.4%.
• Detroit Mercy saw half of its 24 field goals at Purdue Fort Wayne go in from behind the arc.
• The Titans are third in the Horizon League and 47th in the nation at 37.4% from three, as well as second in the HL and 10th in the country with 10.1 per game. 

ANOTHER NCAA RECORD FOR DAVIS

• Antoine Davis scored 29 points against Bryant, but it was his 3-pointer in the first half that got him to 11 points and secured the NCAA record for the most consecutive games in double figures with 116-straight and he has now extended that mark to 126 after his 31 points against Milwaukee.   
• He broke the mark held by Chris Clemons (Campbell, 2015-2019) and Lionel Simmons (La Salle, 1987-90).
• As a freshman, Davis broke the NCAA record for 3-pointers in a season by a rookie with 132, passing Stephen Curry’s 122 he had at Davidson in 2007-08.

RACKING UP THE POINTS

• Antoine Davis now has 89 career 20-point games, 29 career 30-point outings and four 40-point contests in 125 games – reaching 17 points in 111 of them.
• This year, he has a league-best 12, 20-point games and three 30-point outings. 

ABOUT 3,000 POINTS

• Antoine Davis is the highest active scorer in the country in total points with 3,103, seventh in NCAA history. 
• At the moment, only 11 players have reached 3,000 at the DI level.  
• It was his 18th point at Robert Morris last season on a three that put him at 2,500 career points, which was just the fourth time that a student-athlete has posted 2,500 with his dad as head coach following Pete Maravich (Press Maravich), Doug McDermott (Greg McDermott) and Allan Houston (Wade Houston). 
• Only 12 players have reached 2,000 points in the Horizon League as he is now the all-time leader in the conference.
• Imagine that record with the idea that Davis and the Titans have seen 13 games canceled and not made up in the last two seasons due to the pandemic, at least one game missed due to the Titans not being eligible for the postseason in 2019-20 and one game canceled at California in his freshman year due to smoke from wildfires.

ONE LETHAL SHOT

• Antoine Davis comes into the game fifth all-time in NCAA history with 3.90, three-point field goals per game. 
• He tied his career and school career best with 10, 3-pointers – the fourth time he has done that – at Charlotte. He also had six against Milwaukee his last time out, back-to-back games of six against Bryant and home versus Charlotte and five in the wins over Ohio, at Purdue Fort Wayne, and at Tulsa and is third in the NCAA with 4.2, 3-pointers per contest. 
• Davis has made a three in 121 of his 126 collegiate games, with 69 career games with four or more triples, 25 with six or more, 11 games with seven or more, and has four ties connected on 10 in his career, tying a school record as well as breaking a conference tournament record.  
• Davis is already the school career record holder as he passed former All-American Rashad Phillips (348).
• He is currently third in NCAA history in 3-pointers at 492, 12 away from Oakland’s Travis Bader for second and 17 away from Fletcher Magee’s NCAA-record 509. 

CASHING IN ON THE FREE ONES

• Graduate senior Antoine Davis led the HL and was 23rd in the nation in free-throw percentage (88.2%) last year, good for sixth in school history as he is also first with 91.7% in 2021, 90.1% for fourth in 2020 and 85.7% for ninth in 2019. 
• He is currently third in the Horizon League and 31st in DI at 88.6%. 
• Davis owns the school record at 88.7% (535-of-603), ninth among active players and tied for 24th all-time in NCAA history. His 535 free throws are also second in school record book, six shy of that mark.  
• He has had numerous streaks of 10 or more in his career as he has currently made 12 in a row and 30 of his last 32.
• Davis had a career-best of 57-straight between the end of his junior and the start of his senior year.

DAVIS DISHING IT OUT

• Antoine Davis can not only score, but he can get his teammates involved as he is fifth in school history with 521 assists, 27 away from Rashad Phillips and fourth place. 
• The all-time record is 615 by Kevin McAdoo as he is now 94 shy of that mark. 
• He has 49 games with five or more assists and posted a nine-assist effort in the season opener against Rochester.  
• His career-best is 10 at IUPUI and against Western Michigan last season. 
• He is now just the second player in NCAA history to amass 3,000 points and 500 assists, joining St. Peter’s Keydren Clark (2002-06), who recorded 3,058 points with 501 career helpers. 

PLAYING ALL 40

• Graduate senior Antoine Davis played all forty minutes for the third time this year against Milwaukee. He also played all forty at Florida Atlantic and at Cleveland State.
• He has now played 40 or more minutes 32 times in his career and is currently leading the Horizon League and fourth in the nation with 37:23 minutes a game. 
• Last season, he tallied 36.59 minutes per game, second in the HL and 13th in DI. 

WHAT A START FOR LIDDELL

• Gerald Liddell had to wait seven games to play as his eligibility was cleared by the NCAA, but it might have been worth the wait as the senior transfer has posted seven double-doubles in his first eight games. He was the first Titan to have seven-straight since Ryvon Covile registered seven in a row to end the 2006-07 season. 
• vs. Green Bay 19 points, 11 rebounds
• at Cincinnati 18 points, 13 rebounds
• at EMU 18 points, 14 rebounds
• at Charlotte 13 points, 18 rebounds 
• at Tulsa 25 points, 12 rebounds
• at Cleveland St. 18 points, 13 rebounds
• at Purdue Fort Wayne 16 points, 16 rebounds
• His all-around game has seen him tie his career-high with four steals at EMU, three rebounds, two blocks and a steal, playing all 45 minutes at Charlotte, a season-high three blocks and two steals at Tulsa and three more blocks against Green Bay.  
• He has at least two steals in five games and has blocked at least one shot in seven, and if he were eligible for conference leaders, he would be third in the nation in rebounding at 12.8, sixth in the HL in scoring at 16.8, second in the league with 1.5 blocks and third with 1.8 steals. 
• The 18 rebounds he pulled down at Charlotte were the most by a Titan since Eli Holman had 18 versus Milwaukee in 2010.  
• He came into the year with a high in boards of 14 against Alabama A&M, while his previous high in points was 22 against NC Central, both done last year as a member of Alabama State.
• Liddell started his career at Texas before transferring to Alabama State. 
• At ASU, he saw action in 25 games with 19 starts and averaged 10.3 points, a team-high 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists to go with 24 steals and 24 blocks. He shot 43.8 % overall and 37.0 % from three, reaching double figures in 13 games and posting five double-doubles.
• In his three years with Texas, he saw action in 35 games with 10 starts and averaged 2.9 points and 2.3 rebounds. His best year was as a sophomore as he played in 15 games with 10 starts until a back injury cut his season short. Liddell recorded 4.1 points and 3.1 assists and started the year with a then career-best 14 points against No. 23 Purdue. 
• As a prep at Steele HS in Cibolo, Texas, he was ranked No. 41 in the nation by 247Sports and No. 47 by ESPN.

HOOSIER IN THE MOTOR CITY

• Graduate senior Damezi Anderson has been a consistent player for the Titans all season long. 
• He has scored in double figures in seven games on the year, with 15 points and six rebounds his last time out against Green Bay, 15 points in the win over Ohio, 16 with seven boards in the victory at Purdue Fort Wayne, 14 at Charlotte and 11 at Cincinnati. 
• He also has nine games with four or more rebounds, with a career-high nine against Rochester and at Cleveland State. 
• He began his Titan career with a career-high 17 points, nine rebounds and three assists, going 6-of-13 from the field and 5-of-12 from three against Rochester. 
• On the season, he is tallying 9.5 points and 4.7 rebounds – 18th in the HL – shooting 38.8% from the field and 34.0% from three and ranking fifth in the HL with 2.2 per game.
• He started his career at Indiana before ending up at Loyola.
• He did not play in 2021-22 at Loyola and saw action in four games the year before. Prior to that, he played for Indiana for two seasons, appearing in 39 games and averaged 2.1 points and 1.6 rebounds, including 2.8 points and 2.2 rebounds in 18 games as a sophomore. 
• Coming out of high school, he was ranked #92 in the country by 247Sports and No. 114 in the nation by Rivals and was the No. 2 player in the state of Indiana.

A.J. LOOKING FOR ONE FINAL RUN

• A.J. Oliver – who has missed three games this season due to illness – had one of his best games, tying his season-high with 12 points and grabbing nine rebounds at Eastern Michigan. 
• He had another strong game with five points and seven rebounds versus Green Bay. 
• Oliver posted 12 points and five rebounds in the opener against Rochester and had 10 points against Bryant as he is averaging 5.8 points and 4.3 rebounds, shooting 47.1% overall. 
• He played in 95 games at Clemson and at Old Dominion from 2017-22 and averaged 6.2 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, shooting 35.0 % from the field, 37.1% from three and 79.1% at the line.
• Last season at ODU, Oliver saw action in all 32 games with 11 starts and tallied 2.5 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game.
• In 2020-21, he started all 21 contests he appeared in and ranked third on the team with 9.7 points and led the squad with an 88.6 free-throw percentage and 33 triples.
• In his first year, he played in 22 games with 21 starts and was third on the team with 11.3 points per game, led the team with 51, 3-pointers while also pulling down 4.9 rebounds, pouring in a career-high 21 points against FAU and grabbing a career-high 12 boards versus UTSA. 
• Oliver joined Clemson mid-season in 2016-17 and did not play, but then got in 19 games for the Tigers in 2017-18, posting 2.1 points and 1.4 rebounds per game. 

WHAT DO YOU SAY ZAY

• Freshman Isaiah Jones played in just one game, three minutes against Rochester in the season opener, but with the team down a few players, the rookie delivered on the opening weekend of HL play, earning HL Freshman of the Week on Dec. 5. 
• Jones came off the bench tallying 14.0 points and 5.5 rebounds. He shot 58.8% from the field (10-of-17) and 53.3% (8-of-15) from three in the two games.
• He started with 11 points and four rebounds in the win at Purdue Fort Wayne end ended with 17 points – connecting on five triples – seven rebounds and two assists at Cleveland State.
• Jones followed that up with five points in the win at Tulsa, but it was his three with 50 seconds left that gave the Titans a 73-72 lead en route to the 76-72 victory. 

FROM THE LAND DOWN UNDER

• Junior Jayden Stone – who has missed four games with an illness on the season – had a massive game in the season opener, posting his first double-double with a career-high 15 points and 12 rebounds. 
• Since then, he has twice passed his career high with a game-high 22 points with six rebounds, two assists and two steals at BC and 24 points with six assists against Bryant. At Washington State, he netted a team-high 20 with five boards and just tallied seven points, seven rebounds and four assists against Green Bay and 16 points with four boards against Milwaukee. 
• On the season, he is averaging 12.1 points, shooting 45.7% overall, 47.4% from three and 87.9% at the line to go with 4.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists.  
• The Perth, Australia, native transferred to Detroit Mercy after two years at Grand Canyon, where he played in 30 games and averaged 3.4 points and 1.4 rebounds.
• He was one of the top prospects in the state of Alabama, earning the 2019 Alabama 2A Player of the Year.

MEET MR. MOSS

• TJ Moss joined the Titans after a successful prep career in high school and playing at South Carolina and McNeese State and has flashed his ability to be an all-around player.
• After a slow start, he has turned it on in his last four games, tallying 5.5 points, 4.2 assists and 4.0 rebounds after posting 4.1 points, 1.7 assists and 2.1 rebounds in his first 11. He has also handed out at least three assists in four-straight games and eight times on the season.
• Moss is coming off a season-high 12 points against Milwaukee, where he also had five rebounds and three assists. He had four points, a team-high five assists and three rebounds against Green Bay and that came after a season-best six assists and six rebounds at Cincinnati. 
• At Purdue Fort Wayne, he had eight points with a career-high four steals, three assists and two blocks. 
• He played in 64 games with eight starts prior to transferring to Detroit Mercy.
•  Last year, he suited up in nine games at McNeese State and averaged 7.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game, while collecting eight steals. He scored a career-high 17 points at TCU, where he was 5-of-12 from behind the arc, and had five assists and three steals. 
• He spent his first three seasons at South Carolina, where he played in 55 games for the Gamecocks, posting 3.3 points, 1.8 assists and 1.3 boards with 30 steals in his time. 
• As a prep, he was a four-star prospect on ESPN.com and was once hailed as the 26th-best prospect nationally by 247Sports.

TAKING YOU TO THE PARK

• Graduate senior Arashma Parks just missed a double-double with a career-high 11 boards and a season-best eight points at Florida Atlantic. 
• He had three points and five boards against Bryant and grabbed a then career-high nine rebounds off the bench at BC. 
• On the year, he is tallying a 3.6 rebounds per game and has hit on 10-of-13 from the field. 
• He played the last four years at Temple of the American Athletic Conference, appearing in 49 games with 14 starts.
• As a senior, he played in 19 games with 13 starts and averaged 1.1 points and 2.7 rebounds, along with tallying six assists.
• After missing his freshman year due to an injury, he came back as a sophomore to play in 22 games and posted 2.5 points and 2.4 rebounds, putting in a career-high 10 points against St. Joseph’s.

MOTOR CITY PRIDE

• Junior Kyle LeGreair returns as a big part of the Titans’ defense and heart and soul on the court.
• He just scored a season-high four points with two rebounds and two assists against Milwaukee. 
• He registered three assists and two rebounds at Eastern Michigan in 18 minutes. 
• He played 20 minutes at Boston College and had two points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals and dished out three assists versus Bryant and had a career-high four rebounds at Purdue Fort Wayne and two steals at Cleveland State. 
• He really came into his own last season, appearing in 22 games and was 7-of-9 from the floor, hitting his only 3-pointer, and tallied 12 steals. He tied his career-high with five helpers and added a career-best four rebounds at NKU and recorded a career-high five points with three rebounds and a steal against UIC, recording his first two career field goals. 
• As a freshman, he saw action in just two games and a total of just five minutes. 

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