YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — If that's the off-ramp for Antoine Davis, it sure has been one hell of a ride.
Davis made a spirited run at college basketball's all-time scoring record, but he finished three points short as Detroit Mercy dropped a war of wills, 71-66, to No. 1 seed Youngstown State in the Horizon League tournament quarterfinals Thursday night at Beeghly Center.
Davis finished with 22 points. He needed 25 to catch "Pistol" Pete Maravich.
Davis had one more look with about 4 seconds to go, a double-team 3 that clanked off the rim and the clock ran out — possibly on Detroit Mercy's season, and Davis' historic career.
"At the end of the day, I feel like I'm still the best scorer of my generation in basketball," Davis said softly, afterward, standing in a quiet hallway outside the visitors' locker room. "And nobody can take that away from me.
"Just being close is something that nobody ever thought could be done. I'm so thankful for everything, thankful for life, thankful for all my people being able to come and support me, and thankful for my teammates."
Detroit Mercy (14-19) still could technically play another game this season, should one of the low-rung postseason tournaments be interested. Detroit Mercy got invited to and played in one last season, despite a sub-.500 regular season. Head coach Mike Davis, Antoine's dad, said the Titans would accept a bid if offered.
But if the Titans' season is, indeed, over, Davis finishes his five-year career at 3,664 points. The record is 3,667, held by Maravich, who had an epic three-year career at LSU in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Thursday's game, in extreme-eastern Ohio, was played less than an hour from where Maravich was born, in Pennsylvania.
Maravich set the record in just 83 games, as freshman couldn't play varsity in his day. He did it without a 3-point line. Davis played 144 games, with a fifth year granted by the NCAA to all athletes impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The stark differences had some critics calling for an asterisk had Davis set the record.
We'll let his dad tell you what you can do with the asterisk.
"Well, I just hope he gets the recognition he deserves, you know," Mike Davis said. "When you read so much stuff about asterisks and all that talk, and people trying to justify him doing what he did, the bottom line is every game he played in was an NCAA game.
"I was disappointed some of the people said asterisk."
Davis had an off-night shooting Thursday, going 7 for 26, including 4 for 16 on 3s. He was double-teamed the entire night, as usual, even on his final shot, when the game was essentially over.
He also was heckled throughout the night by a raucous, sea-of-red crowd of 5,584, which only gave him a modest ovation when he was introduced during pregame warmups, and then again later when he was recognized as the Horizon League player of the year.
The game was a physical one — there were three technical fouls called on players — and things boiled over after the game in the handshake line, when players had to be separated by their coaches, pushing them toward opposite directions. Davis, his mask off, was led off the court by two Titans staffers, and was the target of trash being thrown by a few members of the student section, located 10 feet above the court.
Davis' teammate, Gerald Liddell, picked up one of the pieces of trash and fired it back into the student section. Davis and his dad held their postgame press conferences in the hallway, rather than walk to the upstairs press area, which would've required walking on the court while fans were still in attendance. Police were on the court after the game.
Davis said the heat was turned up in the handshake lane when Youngstown State's Dwayne Cohill told him he didn't deserve to be Horizon League player of the year.
"I wouldn't have said that to him if he would've won it," Antoine said. "At the end of the day, God doesn't like ugly."
Cohill, a first-team all-Horizon League selection who had some support among coaches for the league's player-of-the-year honor given his stature on a championship team, wasn't available to respond to Davis' accusation, when a school spokesman was asked for confirmation. Cohill and Davis battled each other for much of the game, with a mini-altercation leading to a late technical foul on Cohill that sent Davis to the line.
As pieces of trash were coming down from the student section as the Titans walked off the court toward their locker room, the P.A. announcer urged fans not to throw anything.
Horizon League commissioner Julie Roe Lach declined comment immediately after the game.
It was an ugly end to what had been a rockin' atmosphere for a game that featured nine ties and seven lead changes. Detroit Mercy's largest lead was eight; Youngstown State's was five.
"Nothing like that should ever happen," Mike Davis said. "We can't get emotional, either way. You can't do that.
"You win graciously, you lose graciously. There's no place for that."
Davis led the way for the Titans, points wise, and had two assists and two steals, but also five turnovers.
Freshman guard Marcus Tankersley added 14 points, his career high, while senior forward Liddell had 13 rebounds and 12 points, a double-double to make up for a rough game in the Horizon League-opening win against Purdue Fort Wayne. He also had two blocks, and graduate-student forward A.J. Oliver — who, interestingly, attended the same high school as Maravich, in South Carolina — had 13 points.
Veteran impact players TJ Moss (ankle) and Arashma Parks (COVID) were unavailable for a second straight game.
Davis, 24, had seven points in the first half, as Detroit Mercy led, 33-29, trying to get to the Horizon League semifinals for the first time in the Davises' five-year tenure together.
He heated up for stretches in the second half, and drilled a 3-pointer with 4 minutes, 15 seconds left to give Detroit Mercy a 63-60 lead. That gave him 20 points, on the cusp. But he missed his last four field-goal attempts, with his last points coming on free throws late with the game then in hand for Youngstown State (24-8).
Davis will finish his career as college basketball's 3-point king, a two-time Horizon League player of the year, and a five-time, first-team all-Horizon League pick. And his No. 0 already has been retired at Calihan Hall, in an emotional ceremony last weekend.
It's not everything he wanted — he returned to Detroit Mercy for a fifth year to get to the NCAA Tournament; his dad has made it nine times at three previous stops, but none with the Titans — but it's still pretty darn good.
"I don't regret anything," Davis said. "I felt like God was telling me to come back and do something special here. At the end of the day, it didn't happen, but, you know, that's something you can't control. And I'm just thankful."
