Raiders spoil Detroit star’s big day; HL tourney awaits
The formula for beating Detroit Mercy is no secret: slow down Antoine Davis, and you’ll probably subdue the Titans.
Wright State did just that in an 82-71 road victory that spoiled Davis’ Senior Day, which included having his number retired and a congratulatory visit from Horizon League Commissioner Julie Roe Lach.
The nation’s leading scorer at 27.9 per game, the 6-foot-1 guard had eight points on 3-of-15 shooting in the first half and didn’t get untracked until well into the second half.
By then, Trey Calvin and his cohorts were able to build a 10-point lead, and they didn’t relinquish control again while snapping a three-game losing streak Saturday afternoon.
Calvin, a first-team allleague candidate, finished with 34 points, going 12 of 18 from the field, 4 of 6 on 3-pointers and 6 of 6 on foul shots.
It was his fourth game this season with at least 30 points, and he hiked his field-goal percentage to a nifty 49.6.
A.J. Braun chipped in 13 points and Alex Huibregtse 11 as the Raiders went 29 of 51 from the field (56.9%), which helped them overcome a 40-33 beating on the boards.
“Any win on the road is a good win. We knew it’d be a big night with Davis’ senior night and retiring his number,” coach Scott Nagy said on his postgame radio show.
“I told our players it did feel like a little bit of a set up. We can’t make it about anything but what we’ve got going on. Our guys were tremendous. I’m super proud of them.”
The Raiders, 17-14 overall and 10-10 in the league, will likely be the seventh seed in the HL tournament and play either IUPUI or Green Bay in the first round at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Nutter Center.
They have an outside chance of jumping to the sixth seed, depending on some results Saturday night. But they’d still play at home Tuesday, and their potential opponents wouldn’t change.
“It was a good team win. You could tell our whole bench was in it. Nobody was worrying about who was playing — we were just trying to win a game, and everybody was together,” Nagy said.
Davis finished with 34 points, going 13 of 33 from the field and 5 of 13 on 3s. The Titans (13-18, 9-11) cut the gap to three midway through the second half, but that was their last gasp.
Now in his fifth season with the Titans, Davis upped his average to 28.1 points while his shooting percentage dropped to 41.5.
He’s got an NCAA-record 142 consecutive double-figure games and the most 3s in college basketball history with 578.
He’s second all-time in scoring with 3,604 points, 63 away from Pete Maravich’s record of 3,667.