'He's a special player': Detroit Mercy's Antoine Davis repeats as Horizon League POY

Detroit — The hits just keep on coming for Detroit Mercy's Antoine Davis.

Davis, No. 2 on college basketball's all-time scoring list with a chance to take over the top spot pending the Titans' performance in the postseason, has been voted the Horizon League player of the year for a second consecutive season. He shared the award with Oakland's Jamal Cain last season.

Davis, who is leading the nation at 28.1 points a game, was a unanimous pick for the Horizon League honors, which were voted on by the league's 11 head coaches.

The award also makes him the league's first five-time selection for first-team all-Horizon League. He already had been the first to make first team in four seasons.

"LeBron James has scored more points in his NBA career against the Milwaukee Bucks than any other team in the league. I'm not certain, but that might also be the case for Antoine Davis against the Milwaukee Panthers across the Horizon League," Milwaukee head coach Bart Lundy said. "As much as a thorn as he has been to Milwaukee, it has been a bigger pleasure to be a small part of his journey. He is a special player."

Davis scored 226 points over seven games against Milwaukee, for an average of 32.3 points. He scored 42 against the Panthers during a game earlier this season.

Davis, 25, just had his No. 0 retired by Detroit Mercy on Saturday, following the Titans' final regular-season home game. He is 63 points from "Pistol" Pete Maravich for the No. 1 spot in college basketball history. Detroit Mercy needs to play at least two postseason games for him to take over No. 1. The Titans (13-18, 9-11) play Purdue-Fort Wayne at home Tuesday night in the first round of the Horizon League tournament, and need to win to stay alive.

Davis owns a number of Horizon League and school records, and also is college basketball's 3-point king. He did all of that facing double-teams on a near-nightly basis, particularly from chief rival Oakland.

"To score at the rate that he scores at and to make tough shots the way he makes tough shots," said Oakland head coach Greg Kampe, the first coach to offer Davis a scholarship, "I don't know if I've ever seen that in my 45 years, and I applaud that."

More:Mother's touch led Antoine Davis to Detroit, where he's still making history

Davis is the seventh player to win multiple player-of-the-year awards in the Horizon League, and the second Detroit Mercy player to do it (Rashad Phillips, 2000-01). Wright State's Loudon Love was last to do it, in 2020-21.

Joining Davis on first-team all-Horizon League was Kampe's point guard, Oakland senior Jalen Moore, who made first-team for the second time in three years with the Golden Grizzlies (13-18, 11-9). It's the 17th consecutive season Oakland has landed a player on first-team all-league. Moore is averaging 19.6 points, 5.5 assists and 3.9 rebounds entering Thursday night's Horizon League tournament game at Northern Kentucky.

Oakland sophomore forward Trey Townsend, averaging 16.4 points and 7.7 rebounds, was named second-team all-Horizon League.

On the women's side, Oakland point guard Brooke Quarles-Daniels was named Horizon League freshman of the year, after winning freshman-of-the-week honors six times. Quarles-Daniels, who averaged 12.1 points, was the first Oakland player to win the top freshman award, and she also made second-team all-Horizon League. She was joined on the all-freshman team by Detroit Mercy's Amaya Burch, who averaged 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds.

Oakland (13-16, 8-12) opens the Horizon League tournament at home Tuesday night against Wright State, while Detroit Mercy (5-24, 3-17) plays at Purdue-Fort Wayne on Tuesday night.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tonypaul1984