12 games that have UDM's Antoine Davis on brink of NCAA career scoring record
It was a scene by now familiar to Detroit Mercy basketball observers: With a little under six minutes remaining Tuesday in the Titans’ Horizon League tournament game against Purdue Fort Wayne, Antoine Davis brought the ball up court against a single defender. Driving to his right, Davis suddenly hit the brakes, stepped back behind the 3-point line and launched. Swish.
The basket brought him to 35 points on the night, and a trio of free throws in the next minute left him at 38 points on the night, and 3,642 for his career — No. 2 among all NCAA players, behind only LSU’s “Pistol” Pete Maravich, who scored 3,667 from 1967-70.
Davis, who’s averaging an NCAA-leading 28.1 points a game this season, needs 26 points to pass Maravich, with perhaps just one game to do it: The Titans face top-seeded Youngstown State in the Horizon quarterfinals at 8 p.m. Thursday in YSU’s Beeghly Center. Davis averaged 23.5 points this season against the Penguins, scoring 32 at home on Jan. 12, and then 15 in a 10-point loss on Jan. 29, and has averaged 24.7 points over nine career games vs. them.
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Purists might note that Davis played nearly 60 more games (142 for Davis, 83 for Maravich) than Maravich, and averaged nearly 19 fewer points per game (25.4-44.2) while having the advantage of shooting 3-pointers, which weren’t fully adopted by the NCAA until the 1986-87 season, and the shot clock to speed up the action.
Still, even if Davis is the product of his generation, he is certainly the most prolific scorer of that generation: a two-time Horizon League Player of the Year, the only five-time All-Horizon first-teamer in history, a UDM legend who had his No. 0 jersey retired after Saturday's home finale, and the NCAA leader in career 3-pointers. Here are the key games that brought him to the brink of the NCAA’s ultimate record.
Game 1: Nov. 26, 2018
Western Michigan 89, UDM 76: Davis’ first career basket came 34 seconds in, a layup for a 2-0 UDM lead. Less than a minute later, he hit the first of an NCAA record 578 3-pointers for a 5-2 lead. His last basket came with 13 seconds left, a jumper to give him 32 points in 38 minutes on 12-for-16 shooting.
Game 15: Jan. 3, 2019
UDM 79, Wright State 58: Just four days after the worst game of his budding career — 17 points vs. Cleveland Stste on Dec. 30 — Davis responded with the game of a career: After three straight made 3s over the first eight minutes, the freshman was in a groove. He finished with 10 3s (on 15 tries), plus a 5-for-9 mark inside the arc and eight free throws on nine tries; in all, he went 15-for-24 (62.5%) for 48 points — one point from the school record, set by Archie Tullos on Feb. 2, 1988.
"They said I almost got the record," Davis told the Titans’ website. "I was not thinking about it. I was just playing my game and my teammates were great today."
Game 28: Feb. 28, 2019
UDM 87, IUPUI 85: Davis kept firing 3s all season, getting within one of Stephen Curry’s NCAA record for a freshman (122) in a loss to rival Oakland. It was a different story vs. the Jags; Davis connected on his second 3-point try 3:19 in, then missed his next six beyond the arc. Finally, three minutes into the second half, Davis connected for 3 (on his ninth attempt of the game) to give the Titans a 46-40 lead. He hit two more in three tries and finished with 20 points.
Davis needed 321 3-point tries for the record, while Curry reached 122 in 299 shots over 34 games. But the freshman wasn’t done: he poured in seven more 3s against UIC and NKU (in 23 tries) to finish with 132 while shooting 38% from deep.
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Game 39: Dec. 10, 2019
Notre Dame 110, UDM 71: Heading to South Bend, Davis needed just 26 points to reach 1,000 for his career — a little more than his career average to that point, 25.6. And sure enough, Davis finished with 27 points on 12-for-21 shooting (though he had just one 3 in six tries). Point No. 1,000 came on a free throw with 8:56 remaining. He then hit the second half of the pair in shattering Basketball Hall of Famer Dave DeBusschere’s school record of fastest to 1,000 points (43 games).
Game 66: Dec. 20, 2020
Wright State 85, UDM 72: They weren’t all glory days, especially during the COVID-shortened season of 2020-21, which reorganized the Horizon League schedule into a series of grueling back-to-back matchups. 717 days after his freshman masterpiece against the Raiders, on the second night of a back-to-back at Calihan Hall, the now-junior turned in a stinker: Three made shots (all 2s) on 18 attempts, including an 0-for-7 night beyond the arc and 4-for-6 at the line, for just 10 points. Davis kept his streak of double-digit scoring games alive — it’s now at 143 — barely, with a 2-point jumper with 3:23 remaining.
Game 81: Feb. 25, 2021
UDM 83, Robert Morris 73: Davis finished the Horizon regular season needing 24 points to reach 2,000 for his career. He got them, and then some in the Titans’ Horizon tourney opener at Calihan against the Colonials: Point No. 2,000 came on a 3-pointer with 19 seconds left in the first half. After the break, Davis kept shooting, adding another 21 points for 45 in all — breaking the Horizon tourney record of 44 set in 1987 (by Xavier’s Byron Larkin, brother of Baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin). His 10 3s, tying the UDM record, were also a Horizon tourney record, and his 2,021 points made him the third Titan to 2,000, behind Rashad Phillips (2,319) and John Long (2,167).
Game 94: Jan. 7, 2022
UDM 85, Milwaukee 60: Three COVID cancellations gave Davis 28 days off between games; not that anyone could tell — he opened by making his first six shots en route to 19 early points and a 25-10 UDM lead. Four more points in the first half, and 11 in the first 4:26 of the second set Davis up for program history. With 6:07 remaining, a foul sent Davis to the free throw line, where he calmly sank two shots to become the Titans’ all-time leading scorer.
A couple minutes later, Davis added an exclamation, burying a 3 from the "Dick Vitale Court" logo well behind the line. It gave him 39 points for the game (on 13-for-20 shooting, with an 8-for-13 mark from 3-point range) and 2,323 points in his career. "I just had it going early," Davis said later on the ESPN2 broadcast. "Just do what you do all the time."
In addition to his dad and brother (UDM head coach Mike Davis and assistant coach Mike Davis Jr.) on the sideline, Davis's mom and grandma were in the stands. "Just to have my grandma here, it’s a blessing," Antoine Davis said.
Game 119: Dec. 1, 2022
UDM 75, Purdue Fort Wayne 66: After entering the transfer portal over the offseason, Davis opted to return for a fifth season with the Titans. In the eighth game of the season, the guard knocked off another long-held Horizon League record: Davis scored 22 points against the Mastodons to pass Loyola-Chicago’s Alfredrick Hughes (2,914 points; 1981-85) as the conference scoring leader. The record shot came with 2:27 left, on a 3 — what else? — from the top of the arc; Davis finished with 22 points for the game and 2,919 career points.
Game 122: Dec. 10, 2022
Charlotte 82, UDM 80 (OT): In the fifth game of a seven-game run away from Calihan, Davis became just the 11th player in NCAA history with 3,000 points. The milestone basket came on a game-tying 3 with 2:02 in regulation, giving him 36 points in all (after missing five shots in OT) and 3,001 for his career.
Game 130: Jan. 14, 2023
UDM 87, Robert Morris 75: No Horizon squad has been tortured by Davis more than the Colonials; Davis has averaged 32.5 points in his six career games against them. Thus it was almost fitting that Davis went off for 41 points against them at Calihan, including 33 from beyond the arc. That’s 11 3s — a school record — with the eighth of the game setting another mark. Davis’ bomb from 3 feet beyond the arc, his feet nearly touching the Titans’ midcourt logo, was the 510th of his career, passing Fletcher Magee, who hit 509 for Wofford from 2014-19.
“To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about it, I was just playing,” Davis said in a postgame interview on ESPN’s broadcast. “But once I hit probably, like, about five or six in a row, I was thinking I was probably gonna get it.”
Game 131: Jan. 21, 2023
UDM 89, IUPUI 77: And then there was one to chase. After torching RMU for 41 two nights early, Davis downed the Jaguars in Indianapolis with 42 points to take over second place on the NCAA’s career scoring list (passing Portland State’s Freeman Williams, who had 3,249 points from 1974-78). Davis hit 16 of 30 from the field, including eight of 18 from beyond the arc; he passed Williams with a 3-pointer with 5:43 left I the first half. Next up: Maravich, 393 points away.
Game 142: Feb. 28, 2023
UDM 81, Purdue Fort Wayne 68: Davis went on a tear over the final 11 games of the Horizon season, averaging 30 points while hitting 43.8% on 3s to get within 64 points of the record. Little was different vs. PFW: Davis hit 14 of 27 shots from the field, including a 6-for-13 mark beyond the arc, and added four free throws on four tries to bury the Mastodons — his 40th career game with at least 30 points.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Antoine Davis on brink of NCAA career scoring record; here's how
