Two days after overcoming an 11-point deficit with under seven minutes to go to win at Oakland, the Raiders fell behind by as much as 26 at Detroit Mercy in an 80-75 defeat Sunday.
The Titans (12-13, 9-6) had already been eliminated from the Horizon League race, while the Raiders (16-13, 13-7) still had much at stake. But their hopes for at least a share of a fourthstraight regular-season crown have all but vanished.
“Clearly, it’s my job to get the players there emotionally and mentally, and I didn’t get it done,” Nagy said on his post-game radio show. “I’ll take all the fingers, I don’t care.
“It’s been a battle this year for me — just the consistency — having guys show up one night (and not the next). And I knew after the Oakland game, you want them to enjoy it, but you have to move past it because it’s going to be way different the next game. We’re going into a gym with 12 (fans) in it.”
Senior guard Antoine Davis scored 31 points — his most since erupting for 48 in his first meeting with the Raiders as a freshman. The Titans never trailed, racing to leads of 9-2 in the first three minutes and 17 at halftime.
The margin grew to 59-33 on a 3 by Kevin McAdoo with 13:10 left and was still 62-40 with 9:26 to go after Davis made a 3.
The Raiders went on a 21-4 run to cut it to 66-61 on a Grant Basile bucket with 3:18 to go.
Clinging to a five-point lead, Detroit’s Noah Waterman knocked down a 3 with 1:18 left for a 71-63 edge.
Tim Finke had a career-high 21 points for the Raiders. Tanner Holden had 20 points for his league-leading 17th 20-point game this season.
Trey Calvin added 14 before fouling out. Basile notched his ninth double-double this season with 10 points (all in the second half) and 10 rebounds.
Little-used forward James Manns scored six points in 12 minutes off the bench.
The Raiders had beaten the Titans, 90-59, at the Nutter Center on Feb. 4 and were 10-1 in the series under Nagy.
Detroit Mercy is 7-0 at home this season but was playing without second-leading scorer Madut Akec, a 6-7 forward averaging 13.5 points. He’s been out the last four games with an undisclosed injury.
“We have a pattern on this team of showing up, then not showing up, showing up, then not showing up. … I have to get them ready to play,” Nagy said.
“Everybody is like, ‘Well, at least you didn’t give up.’ That’s what losers say.”
The Raiders were looking to parlay the win at Oakland into a strong finishing kick.
They came up short instead — just as they did after scoring a season-high 97 points in an easy win at UIC on Jan. 20. They could only manage 63 points in a 10-point loss at Northern Kentucky in their next outing.
A 60-57 loss at Milwaukee was another shocker. They shot just 28% while seeing their four-game winning streak come to an end.
The Titans took a startling 39-22 lead at halftime.
It’s the third time in four games that the Raiders have been held to 23 or fewer points in the first half.
They finished just 5 of 23 on 3′s. Detroit was 14 of 27, including 4 of 9 from Davis.
“They just whipped us on both ends. On the defensive end, we were soft. On the offensive end, soft. But again, that’s my job to have our guys emotionally prepared,” Nagy said.
THURSDAY’S GAME
Youngstown State at Wright State, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 980
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