East Michigan News

Eastern Michigan University's men's basketball team faced a challenging game against the University of Detroit Mercy, resulting in a 98-89 overtime loss on Saturday at the George Gervin GameAbove Center. Despite trailing by 13 points with just over 11 minutes left, Eastern managed to take a two-point lead with only 21 seconds remaining. However, they were unable to maintain this advantage into overtime.

Christian Henry from Chicago led Eastern with a career-high of 28 points, while Da'Sean Nelson matched his personal best with 24 points. Detroit Mercy started strong, scoring the first five points and maintaining a lead throughout much of the game. They held a significant advantage of 55-42 before Eastern's late surge brought them back into contention.

A notable moment came when Jalin Billingsley gave Eastern its first lead at the three-minute mark in regulation time. Although Henry's three-pointer briefly put Eastern ahead near the end of regular play, Detroit Mercy equalized with six seconds left and dominated the overtime period.

The game's statistics show that Eastern shot 47.5% from the floor and made 39.3% of their three-point attempts. In contrast, Detroit Mercy had a shooting accuracy of 54.8% from the field and an impressive 64.3% from beyond the arc.

This defeat moves Eastern to a season record of 5-3, while Detroit Mercy improves to 4-5. The Titans also out-rebounded Eastern slightly, which contributed to their victory.

Historically, this result shifts EMU's all-time record against UDM to 23 wins and 63 losses. Notably, this was EMU's first instance since February where two players scored over twenty points each in one game.

Eastern will next travel to Chicago for a matchup against Loyola Chicago on December 3rd.