Robert Morris ousted from Horizon League tourney by Detroit Mercy

Robert Morris put up a fight but had no answer for the Horizon League’s leading scorer.

Antoine Davis’ 46 points were too much for the Colonials to overcome in their first Horizon Tournament men’s basketball game, an 83-73 loss to Detroit Mercy on Thursday night at Calihan Hall in Detroit.

It was the Titans’ third victory in seven days over Robert Morris.

Detroit Mercy rode Davis’ hot hand from start to finish as the 6-foot-1 junior guard, who is the Horizon’s leading scorer, surpassed the 2,000-point mark for his career.

“There’s a reason why he’s the leading scorer in the league, a first-team all-league player,” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said. “If we could play everybody without their best player, we’d have a much better chance of winning games.”

It was the first March Madness game of a season shortened by the pandemic as the Horizon opened Division I’s schedule of postseason tournaments with four first-round games.

The America East and Big South tournaments are scheduled to start Saturday, tentatively the only other leagues to open tournament play in February.

Kahliel Spear led Robert Morris with 22 points.

No. 5 seed Detroit Mercy (12-9), which won for the ninth time in 10 games, advanced to a quarterfinal game Tuesday at No. 4 Northern Kentucky.

No. 12 seed Robert Morris (4-15) ended a disappointing first season in the Horizon League after winning the Northeast Conference Tournament championship in 2020 in its final season in the NEC.

“A tough way to end the year,” Toole said. “Obviously, we wanted the season to continue if we could. But I thought our guys battled tonight. For the majority of the year, we’ve just been a step slow, a step out of position.”

The Colonials played five overtime games against Horizon League teams this season, losing four.

“We weren’t quite good enough,” Toole said. “We weren’t able to get over the hump.”

Robert Morris played for much of the season without 6-7 forward AJ Bramah, who was battling Davis for the conference scoring lead before leaving the team earlier this month to enter the NCAA transfer portal.

He was averaging 21.0 points and 10.3 rebounds at the time of his departure.

“We have a great sense of what this league is about,” Toole said. “We’ve got a feel for the size and skill of the opponents this year. Every team has a high-level player or two. We’ll get to work with a full offseason and start preparing guys for what it takes to be successful in a really tough league. We have some tough-minded dudes, we just need some of them to perform better.”

Jon Williams added 17 points and nine assists, and Kam Farris scored 15 for the Colonials, who shot 49.1% overall and 44.4% (8 for 18) from 3-point range.

Bul Kuol added 14 points, and Chris Brandon contributed 10 points and led the way with 13 rebounds for Detroit Mercy, which held a 34-21 edge on the glass.

Robert Morris lost 6-8 senior Charles Bain early in the second half to a calf injury. He had eight points and five rebounds.

“We had to go a little bit smaller,” Toole said. “It’s unfortunate because he was giving us some energy.”

Davis, already no stranger to the Colonials, having averaged 27.5 points in a pair of victories over Robert Morris last weekend, shot 16 for 26, including 10 for 16 from 3-point range. He came within two points of the Detroit Mercy single-game record held by Byron Larkin.

Detroit Mercy shot 55.6% overall and 54.2 (13 for 24) from behind the arc.

Robert Morris held the early lead through the first 11 minutes, 28 seconds before Davis led Detroit Mercy on a rampage as the Titans went in front by 15 points, outscoring the Colonials, 24-7, before settling for a 36-23 halftime advantage.

Davis, who scored 24 first-half points, surpassed Dave DeBusschere in the second half for third place on all-time Detroit Mercy scoring list, becoming only the third 2,000-point scorer in school history with 2,024.

Detroit Mercy kept Robert Morris at arm’s length throughout the second half, maintaining a double-digit lead for most of the time and allowing the Colonials to inch no closer than seven points.