The outstanding season for University of Detroit Mercy star guard Antoine Davis continued on Tuesday as he added to his impressive rookie accolades by being named the Horizon League Freshman of the Year and First Team All-Horizon League.
He is the eighth Titan in school history to earn the league’s Freshman/Newcomer of the Year honor and the fifth as a freshman following Rashad Phillips (1998), Ray McCallum (2011), Paris Bass (2015) and Corey Allen (2017).
Davis is also just the second Titan in school history to garner First Team All-Conference honors as a true freshman joining Norm Swanson, who was First Team All-Missouri Valley Conference in 1950.
The record-breaking guard currently leads the Horizon League in scoring at 26.0 points per game — third highest in Division I — and is on pace to be the first-ever freshman in league history to lead the conference in scoring as his current average is the fifth highest in league history.
He would also be the fifth Titan to lead the league in scoring and the first since McCallum’s 18.7 ppg in 2012-13.
Davis set a NCAA freshman record with a conference-best 128, 3-pointers on the year and has 22, 20-point games, eight 30-point performances and two 40-point outings on the season, leading the Titans in scoring in 28 of the 29 games he has played in.
He also has 99 assists on the year and one more will make him the first Titan with 100 assists in a season since McCallum’s 147 in 2012-13.
Davis owns Horizon League freshman records on the year in points in a game (48), 3-pointers in a season (128) and points in a season (754), while his 128 triples rank fifth overall in the HL record book.
He is one of just three freshmen in Division I to score in double figures in every game they have played on the year, RJ Barrett of Duke and Lamine Diane of Cal State Northridge are the others.
Davis started his collegiate career with back-to-back 30-point games, netting 32 at Western Michigan and 30 at Temple, en route to scoring at least 20 points in eight-straight games. When conference play started, he put together one of the best games in recent history, tallying a season-high 48 points against Wright State, the fourth most in league play in Horizon League history and the most since 1995 and the sixth most by a league player against any competition in the 40 years of the Horizon League.
He had 42 points to break the Titan freshman record in points in November against Loyola Maryland and went for 33 points at home against NKU and 32 versus Milwaukee.
Davis and the Titans will begin the Little Caesars Horizon League Championship on Wednesday when they play at NKU in the quarterfinals.
2019 Horizon League Men’s Basketball Award Winners
- Player of the Year: Drew McDonald, Northern Kentucky
- Defensive Player of the Year: D.J. McCall, IUPUI
- Freshman of the Year: Antoine Davis, Detroit
- Sixth Man of the Year: Jaylen Minnett, IUPUI
- Coach of the Year: Scott Nagy, Wright State
All-League First Team (alphabetical by school)
- Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy
- Sandy Cohen III, Green Bay
- Drew McDonald, Northern Kentucky
- Xavier Hill-Mais, Oakland
- Loudon Love, Wright State
All-League Second Team (alphabetical by school)
- Tyree Appleby, Cleveland State
- Camron Justice, IUPUI
- Tarkus Ferguson, UIC
- Bill Wampler, Wright State
- Darius Quisenberry, Youngstown State
All-Freshman Team (alphabetical by school)
- Rashad Williams, Cleveland State
- Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy
- Braden Norris, Oakland
- Malachi Smith, Wright State
- Darius Quisenberry, Youngstown State
All-Defensive Team (alphabetical by school)
- D.J. McCall, IUPUI
- Jalen Tate, Northern Kentucky
- Parker Ernsthausen, Wright State
- Mark Hughes, Wright State
- Garrett Covington, Youngstown State