As the first week of the college basketball regular season came and went, it’s safe to say that the Detroit Mercy Titans men’s basketball team certainly didn’t have the week that they were hoping to have. After dropping an opening decision to the UIC Flames in a 91-71 decision on the road Monday night, the trip to South Bend ended with a loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish by a score of 102-70 on Friday night. While the first two games on the 2025-26 slate were underwhelming for Detroit’s college team, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t positives to take away from the 0-2 start.
In the opening loss to UIC last Monday, the story of the game was the Titans’ inability to shoot the rock, as they went an abysmal 8-of-40 (20%) from three-point range. The three-pointer accounted for over half of their total shot attempts, considering they went 24-of-77 (31.2%) from the field overall. Detroit Mercy started off the game well, taking a 23-13 lead by the under-12 media timeout. They even led for the majority of the first half before a late run from the Flames caused them to go down seven heading into halftime.
On the other side of intermission, UIC was able to stretch out the lead to 57-43 by the under-12 media timeout in the second half. While back-to-back left-corner threes from Titans sophomore Nate Johnson cut the lead to 60-51, junior Ahmad Hendersen II responded with a three of his own for the Flames on the ensuing possession, and that was as close as Detroit Mercy got for the remainder of the game.
The Flames were led by Henderson II, who had 23 points, going 5-of-8 from deep and 7-for-12 from the field in total. He was one of five scorers in double-digits for UIC in the win. As for the Titans, they were led by two newcomers in the scoring category. Freshman Keshawn Fisher had 12 points in his first collegiate game, and junior transfer Ayden Carter had a team-high 18 points in his Titans debut. Carter also added five rebounds, two assists, and two steals in his first game of Division I basketball. Following his performance, he expressed much thanks for the opportunity:
“It was a surreal feeling, to get a chance to showcase that my skills can translate to this level – it was a great feeling. [It was] not the result we wanted, but we’ll [soon] get some wins for sure”
Moving ahead to Friday, Detroit Mercy had an even taller task at hand. That task was taking on Markus Burton, who was tied with Duke Blue Devils freshman Cameron Boozer in preseason ACC Player of the Year voting, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. When it was all said and done, the red, white and blue left the Purcell Pavilion after being handed a 102-70 loss.
The Titans hung around in the first half, facing a 44-31 deficit going into the break, but the Fighting Irish used six double-digit scorers to pull away in the second half. They were led by junior Braeden Shrewsberry who finished with 19. They also shot the ball well from beyond the arc, going 14-for-32 (43.8%).
As for the Titans, they shot the ball slightly better in this contest, going 28-for-67 (41.8%) from the field and 9-of-30 (30%) from three, but being outrebounded 44-33 and attempting only 10 free throws to Notre Dame’s 22 was all-in-all too much to overcome. Individually, they were led by TJ Nadeau, who exploded for a game-high 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting after being held to a quiet opening game. The sweet-shooting sophomore went 6-for-11 from three-point range and added three rebounds and three assists to his overall excellent performance.
Despite the two opening losses for Detroit Mercy, there were absolutely positives to take away. One would be the display that Ayden Carter put on in the opening week. The Division II transfer is already looking increasingly comfortable, and this is a sentiment that he expressed himself following the first two games.
“I think these first two games have been great, playing solid competition obviously. I think that it’s really made me comfortable already, and I’d say that I’m ready for anything we’re going to face.”
“I’ll definitely use these games to build going forward in the future as I feel like it’s been extremely beneficial”
Another positive takeaway was certainly the stellar performance that TJ Nadeau put on in South Bend on Friday. A game like that against a solid power five conference opponent cannot be overlooked. Nadeau talked about how cool it was to have the showing he did on that stage.
“It was a cool experience to be able to do that at Notre Dame, as that’s where my old high school coach played at, so it was a fun time to go experience what he was able to experience in that gym. Beyond that for this season, [let’s] just build on it and hopefully get some wins.”
Additionally, the play of freshman Keshawn Fisher early on has been encouraging, as the first-year Titan and pure athlete is making an impact already on both ends of the floor. However, while the Titans have numerous good individual defenders, they’ll look to shore up their team defense as a unit going forward. If they can couple that with pre-season all-conference first-team selection Orlando Lovejoy turning it on after a fairly quiet opening week, this team can be playing some serious ball here very soon.
Looking Ahead…
As we turn the page forward to this week, the Detroit Mercy Titans will look to find more success in week two of the season. The Titans have their home-opener tonight against non-DI opponent Cleary University. The game will tip-off at 7pm in Calihan Hall. They’ll then take the trip just down I-75 South to play the Toledo Rockets on Saturday. The game against the Rockets will have a 1pm tip.
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