Star scorer Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy too much for Robert Morris

Robert Morris has seen enough of Detroit Mercy and its shooting star, Antoine Davis.

Nearly a year after the Titans and Davis torched the Colonials three times in a span of seven days, they made their first-ever appearance on Robert Morris’ Moon campus and did it again Wednesday night.

Davis, the nation’s leading scorer, poured in 26 points, and Detroit Mercy rolled to a 79-62 victory over Robert Morris at UPMC Events Center. He shot 9 for 22, including 6 for 15 from 3-point range.

For the season, the 6-foot-1 senior guard from Birmingham, Ala., is shooting 41.0 %, converting 158 of 385 attempts.

“Did anybody watch him warm up?” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said. “We’ve played him four times now. I don’t know if you should say this as an opposing head coach, but I love watching him warm up because the dude doesn’t miss a shot.”

His 26 points allowed Davis to became just the fourth college player to reach 2,500 career points while their father was serving as their coach.

Mike Davis, the former Indiana, UAB and Texas Southern coach, is in his fourth season at Detroit Mercy.

The other duos include Aliquippa native Pete Maravich (3,667 points) and Press Maravich at LSU, Doug McDermott (3,150) and Greg McDermott at Creighton and Allan Houston (2,801) and Wade Houston at Tennessee.

It was enough to send Toole to the candid side.

“I almost told my wife, ‘You should come early tonight,’ ” he said. “I’d tell my kids to come and watch it because this is how shooters shoot it. He’s meticulous about his prep. All these guys that come in the gym and think they’re shooters? (In pregame warmups), he goes to a foot away and shoots 100 shots in the lane before he even gets to the 3-point line.

“We’ve got dudes shooting 22% that won’t step inside the 3-point line. This dude is ridiculous, and he goes to a foot away and swishes every one, and he builds it over and over and over and over. I say this to our guys in (the locker room) and they don’t believe a word I say. He shoots like 1,000-2,000 shots a day. We shoot 20 and think we’re good to go. It’s just a different level of preparation.

“But everybody wants the leash, the green light that he has, but not everybody wants to put in the work that he has. But that’s how you earn it.”

The thought of another home loss — his Colonials fell to 4-7 at UPMC Events Center this season — riled Toole even more.

“It just goes round and round,” he said. “You have to ask yourself, ‘Are you getting yourself to the level where you can go out and execute against good teams on both sides of the ball?’ ”

The answer in Robert Morris’ latest outing was clear. The Colonials jumped to an early 10-3 lead and stretched their advantage to 16-9 before Detroit Mercy responded by outscoring the Colonials, 25-7, over the next 10 minutes and wound up with a 37-27 halftime cushion.

Detroit Mercy finished the night 13 for 31 (41.9 %) from 3-point range. Overall, the Titans shot 44.4 %.

Detroit Mercy owned the rebounding edge, 35-22.

“These teams are too good to give them these kinds of opportunities,” Toole said. “Sometimes, I think we get sad. Sad doesn’t really help us much. I’d rather it be mad or frustrated. Does that frustration fuel you? Pay attention to the details, like crashing the glass, pressuring the ball, all the things that can help you turn things around and get positive. We just get sad and want everyone to feel bad for us.

“But our opponents don’t care.”

DJ Harvey added 14 points and led the Detroit Mercy with nine rebounds while Noah Waterman scored 11 for the Titans (10-11, 7-4).

Kahliel Spear scored 15 points with seven rebounds to lead Robert Morris (6-18, 4-11), which entertains Oakland on Friday night in a rematch of a 79-61 road loss to the Golden Grizzlies on Dec. 30.

Kam Farris added 11 points, and Michael Green III chipped in 10 for the Colonials.

Wednesday’s game marked the only regular-season meeting between Detroit Mercy and Robert Morris this season after the first scheduled contest Jan. 1 at Detroit Mercy was canceled because of covid-19.

Antoine Davis, who entered the night averaging a Division I-leading 23.3 points per game, increased his career scoring total to 2,508 and is Detroit Mercy’s all-time leading scorer.

A year ago, he averaged 24.5 points in the three games against Robert Morris, scoring 46 in a first-round Horizon League Tournament game Feb. 25.