YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Antoine Davis is on the verge of breaking a goalscoring record once considered untouchable — and, in some ways, remains.
Detroit Mercy star guard is 19 points from passing Pete Maravich as NCAA career leading scorer. Davis, who leads the nation in averaging 28.4 points per gameentered Thursday needing 26 to beat the revered mark of “Pistol” Pete that has been around since 1950.
Davis has seven points at halftime in a Horizon League tournament game as the eighth-seeded Titans give top-seeded Youngstown State all they can handle. The Titans lead 33-29 at the break.
Wearing a protective mask to protect a broken nose suffered earlier this season in Cincinnati, Davis started slowly in front of a sold-out crowd inside the Beeghly Center on the Youngstown State campus.
The rail-thin senior graduate missed his first four shots before unleashing an off-balance jumper off the top of the sideline with 14:01 left in the half. He followed with a 3-pointer and also made a basic fadeaway.
Youngstown State’s defense makes it difficult for Davis, trapping him at times and shielding him from the face on a few possessions.
Davis is just 3 of 9 from the field in the first half.
Davis scored 38 goals Tuesday night in a win over Purdue Fort Wayne to advance the Titans (14-18) and close to the mark Maravich set as an All-American for LSU from 1967-70.
Just weeks after LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s leading career scorer, Davis has a shot at beating Maravich, the Hall of Famer his father made him study while learning to play when he was a child.
A gifted shooter and scorer, the smooth 6-foot-1 Davis will have his work cut out for him to break the record against the Penguins (23-8), who held him to 15 points on Jan. 29 at Youngstown State. He also dropped 32 on them in the first meeting this season.
Davis already holds several NCAA records, including consecutive double-digit (143) and 3-point (584) games. He leads Division I with 156 3s this season and is seven years behind Stephen Curry’s record of 162 in a season (2007-08).
If he is able to pass Maravich and make history, the new scoring record will also belong to Davis.
However, this one might need an asterisk — or two.
Davis scored 3,642 points in 142 games while it took Maravich just 83 to get 3,667 in three seasons for the Tigers when he was known as much for a shaggy haircut and drooping socks as he was. for his magic on the pitch.
Unlike Davis, who got a fifth year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maravich didn’t play freshman – it wasn’t allowed at the time – and there was no no 3-point line or stopwatch either, placing a premium on every possession.
It’s mind-boggling to consider that Maravich, who died in 1988 at age 40 after suffering a heart attack while playing in a pickup game, averaged 44.2 points without taking or making a single 3-pointer.
But it’s also worth noting that Maravich attempted 3,166 shots while Davis came in with 2,961.
In addition to their propensity to score, Davis and Maravich share something else: Both played college ball while being coached by their fathers.
Mike Davis credited with losing his job at UAB and moving his family to Houston, where his son, then in college, trained under former NBA coach John Lucas, changing the trajectory of his playing career.
To supplement the hours of work with Lucas, Davis had his son watch instructional videos of Maravich, who had a knack for making dribbling, passing and shooting easy.
“A lot of times people can do things but they can’t teach them,” Mike Davis told Yahoo Sports. “Pete could actually teach it. The way he explained how he did things, it was so simple. You don’t need to be a basketball coach to understand.
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