Davis finishes shy of passing Maravich scoring mark
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Antoine Davis outscored them all — except for “Pistol” Pete.
Detroit Mercy’s star guard finished four points shy of surpassing Pete Maravich as the NCAA career scoring leader on Thursday night, scoring 22 in a gritty 71-66 loss to Youngstown State in the Horizon League tournament.
Davis came in needing 26 points to break Maravich’s hallowed mark that stood for over 50 years. But after picking his fourth foul with 3:36 left, the 6-foot-1 guard didn’t drive to the basket and then missed four 3-pointers — one of them a wide-open look — in the final two minutes of the intense game.
After the final buzzer, tempers briefly flared and Davis, who was pestered by Youngstown State defenders all night, had to be restrained from going after one of the Penguins players. There was some debris thrown at him from the student section as he was whisked off the floor.
Unless Detroit Mercy gets an unlikely postseason bid, Davis finishes with 3,664 points in five seasons. Maravich amassed 3,667 points in just three years while playing for his dad, Press, and he did it before there was a 3-point line or shot clock.
That doesn’t diminish what Davis accomplished as one of the most prolific scorers in college history.
Davis had just seven points at halftime as the top-seeded Penguins harassed him all over the floor and made it tough for him to get a good look at the basket.
He began to find his range in the second half, but couldn’t put together one of his patented sprees.
Wearing a protective mask to protect a broken nose sustained earlier this season at Cincinnati, Davis started slowly in front of a sellout crowd inside Beeghly Center on Youngstown State’s campus.
The rail-thin graduate senior missed his first four shots before dropping an off-balance jumper from the top of the key with 14:01 left in the half.