Detroit Mercy hands Robert Morris another Horizon League loss

DETROIT — Antoine Davis had 26 points as Detroit Mercy topped Robert Morris, 85-74, on Friday night.

Charles Bain had 19 points for the Colonials (4-13, 3-11 Horizon League). Cameron Wilbon added 15 points and six rebounds, and Jon Williams had 14 points.

Noah Waterman had 19 points for Detroit Mercy (10-9, 9-6), which earned its fifth consecutive home victory. Bul Kuol added 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Chris Brandon had 14 points.

Davis made all 10 of his free throws. He added eight assists.

Robert Morris and Detroit Mercy will play a rematch at 5 p.m. Saturday at Calihan Hall in the regular-season finale for both before the start of the Horizon League Tournament, which is scheduled to get underway with early round games Thursday and March 2 at campus sites.

Former Robert Morris star Earl Cureton is part of the ESPN3 broadcast team calling the weekend doubleheader involving two schools close to his heart.

He is an alum of both.

Now they’re in the same conference following Robert Morris’ decision to leave the Northeast Conference and join the Horizon League this season.

“Obviously, with Robert Morris, it was pretty exciting to see them come into the Horizon League this year,” Cureton, a Detroit native, told The Detroit News in an interview earlier this week. “I knew I’d be calling some of their games.”

After playing one season at the junior college level at Robert Morris, Cureton and the Colonials moved to NCAA Division I.

Arguably the best basketball player in school history, Cureton, known as “The Twirl,” averaged 17.2 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in his only Division I season at Robert Morris.

He holds single-season records for rebounds (274) and rebounding average and is the only Robert Morris player at the Division I level to average a double-double.

Cureton, 63, transferred to Detroit Mercy, where, after sitting out a year, he played his final two seasons.

The Philadelphia 76ers selected Cureton in the 1979 draft, and he played in the league for 12 seasons, earning championship rings with the 76ers in 1983 and the Houston Rockets in 1994.

In 674 games with a total of seven NBA teams, the 6-foot-9 Cureton averaged 5.4 points and 4.7 rebounds.