If one thing is true in college basketball, it would be this: It is indeed a marathon. If you can continue the steady trend upward, taking steps forward and showing improvement with each day, you’ll be in a solid spot come late-February/March.
The Detroit Mercy Titans men’s basketball team took a step forward this past week.
Their first contest of the season at Calihan Hall last Tuesday concluded with a 92-54 win over non-D1 Cleary University. The home opener was a contest in which we saw the depth and new talent that the Titans added this past offseason on full display with the absence of veterans Orlando Lovejoy and Legend Geeter. After the Cougars scored the first points of the game, Detroit Mercy promptly went on an 11-0 run to take control early. After taking a 40-22 advantage going into the half, they continued to pile on in the second half. After junior Ayden Carter and freshman Keshawn Fisher caught fire halfway through the second half, igniting a 13-2 burst, the Titans built their lead up to 66-30. They never looked back from there.
The Titans were led by sophomore guard TJ Nadeau, who had 16 points and six rebounds on the night, but it was an overall balanced performance from the squad. Carter added 15 points and eight rebounds, and Fisher chipped in 14. However, just as impressive were the outputs from two other freshmen, Lance Stone and Je’kel Cotton. After relatively quiet opening weeks for both, they showed up in a big way in the home-opening win. Stone had an impressive all-around game, scoring 11 points, dishing out six assists, grabbing five rebounds, and swiping three steals, all while playing a team-high 29 minutes. Cotton had a near double-double, ending with nine points (2-for-4 from three) and 10 rebounds in a season-high 19 minutes. For the Cougars, they were held offensively at bay by a Titans defense that was consistently solid throughout this one. Cleary was held to 18-of-61 (30%) from the field. Jacob Mueller led the way with seven points and six rebounds. Amare Slaughter also chipped in seven points and had two steals, while Trevor Viau added six points for the Cougars.
Detroit Mercy then shifted their attention to Saturday, where a road matchup with the Toledo Rockets hung in the balance. After a complete 40-minute battle, the Titans fell just short in a 90-83 decision at Savage Arena. After a first half in which they were down as many as nine, they climbed their way back to just a four-point deficit (41-37) heading into the intermission. The Titans continued to battle and even took a 63-62 lead after a Lance Stone three with 11:30 to go. The Rockets though, through the trio of Sonny Wilson, Leroy Blyden Jr., and Austin Parks started to pull away as the second half wore on. A TJ Nadeau three cut the lead back down to five with just under a minute left, but Toledo made their free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
The Rockets shot 31-of-59 (53%) from the field and were led by Leroy Blyden Jr. With 20 points and seven assists. They also got 18 points from Sonny Wilson, which included 15 in the second half, as well as six rebounds, five assists and two steals. Sean Craig and Austin Parks both added 17. As for the Titans, Orlando Lovejoy led the visitors with 18 and five assists, Nadeau added 15; Ayden Carter had 12 to go along with six rebounds, and Lance Stone rounded out the double figure scorers for Detroit Mercy with 11. Head coach Mark Mongomery had a lot of good things to say about the contest against the Rockets:
““Whenever you get into a game, especially on the road against a good opponent, and it’s a two-possession game with five minutes to go, you have to feel good about the position that you’re in, but we just have to find a way to get a few more stops or make a few less mistakes in that position. I[also] like seeing four or five guys in double figures, so the defense can’t key in on one guy.”
Stone is a player in particular that seemed to look much more comfortable in week two as opposed to the opening week of the season, playing two very quality games. He echoed this same sentiment, as well as expressing a desire to continue his improvement and good play:
“Just looking to build every day, from practice to games, just staying consistent is the most important thing right now.”
“My coaches have been putting confidence in me, [telling me] ‘Come on, we know who you are.’”
Montgomery also saw the improvement in his squad’s play this past week as well, while also seeing areas the Titans need to improve upon:
“I definitely saw improvement in games three and four from the first two.”
“We had a lot of first year guys look more comfortable [with] and accustomed to this level of basketball in the past couple of games. You know, it’s basketball, sometimes things don’t go how you want them to. So, what I’ve learned is that we can face some adversity and pick ourselves up.”
“When it comes to what needs cleaned up, we need to take better care of the basketball and we have to make more threes, [as] we’re shooting under 30% from three. For us to win at the level that we want, those two things must change.”
As we look forward to this week, the Titans will be busy with three games. First, they’ll take on Eastern Michigan at home tonight at 7pm. Next, they’ll take a trip west to East Lansing where they will be hosted by the Michigan State Spartans on Friday at 6:30pm. Lastly, the red, white and blue will take on DePaul on Sunday at 6pm. This week will tell a lot about where this Detroit Mercy squad is at, and we’ll see if they can keep this positive trend continuing.
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