Metro Series

Metro Series

Detroit Mercy Titans Oakland Golden Grizzlies
Sport	College basketball
First meeting	February 18, 1998 Detroit Mercy 110, Oakland 61
Latest meeting	February 13, 2022 Oakland 75, Detroit Mercy 59
Next meeting	2022
Trophy	Michigan Sports Hall of Fame Cup
Statistics
Meetings total	23
All-time series	Oakland leads 17-6
Largest victory	Detroit Mercy, 110–61 (1998)
Longest win streak	Oakland, 10 (2017-2021)
Current win streak	Oakland, 1 (2022–present)

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Locations of Detroit Mercy and Oakland

The Metro Series is an annual college basketball rivalry game between the Detroit Mercy Titans and the Oakland Golden Grizzlies. Both schools are located in the U.S. state of Michigan in the Metro Detroit area, with Detroit Mercy being in the city of Detroit proper while Oakland is located in the Detroit suburb of Rochester. They are the only two Division I institutions in the Detroit area. Both compete as members of the Horizon League.

History

The two teams first met in the 1997-1998 season, which was Oakland's first season competing in Division I after it had competed at the Division II level for all seasons prior. In their first matchup, Detroit Mercy defeated the transitioning team in what would be the largest margin of defeat for the series to date, 110-61. The two teams faced off a few more times going into the 2000s, but with Detroit Mercy in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now the Horizon League) and Oakland joining the Mid-Continent Conference (now the Summit League), the series quickly fizzled out.

However, this changed in 2013, when Oakland announced it would be joining Detroit Mercy in the Horizon League for the 2013-2014 athletic season and beyond. This created a natural rivalry for the Titans, and with annual matchups between the two Detroit area schools now guaranteed for the foreseeable future, the Metro Series, as it began to be known, started to take off. Oakland won the first in-conference match-up between the schools on January 11, 2014, defeating the Titans 77-69.

2015 saw the addition of a trophy sponsored by the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. Known as the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame Cup, it is awarded to the winner of the season basketball series between the two schools. Should the schools split the series, the cup is awarded to the team with the better Rating Percentage Index (RPI) at the time of the game. The inaugural trophy was won by Oakland in 2015; they split the series 1-1 with the Titans, but the Golden Grizzlies had the higher RPI at the end of the series, and thus were awarded the trophy. ^[1]

Oakland has historically dominated the series since its inception, with Detroit Mercy having only won three games against them since the Golden Grizzlies first joined the Horizon League and winning ten straight matchups from 2017 to 2021. The latest match also resulted in a victory for Oakland, defeating Detroit Mercy at the Grizzlies' Athletics Center O'rena 75-59. ^[2]

Men's results

Detroit Mercy victories

Oakland victories

No. Date Location Winner Score 1 February 18, 1998 Detroit, MI Detroit Mercy 110–61 2 December 5, 2000 Detroit, MI Detroit Mercy 77–56 3 December 6, 2001 Rochester, MI Oakland 93–67 4 December 3, 2003 Detroit, MI Detroit Mercy 76–60 5 January 11, 2014 Detroit, MI Oakland 77–69 6 February 12, 2014 Rochester, MI Oakland 83–82OT 7 January 10, 2015 Detroit, MI Detroit Mercy 74–54 8 February 15, 2015 Rochester, MI Oakland 83–78 9 January 16, 2016 Detroit, MI Oakland 86–82 10 February 26, 2016 Rochester, MI Oakland 108–97 11 January 13, 2017 Rochester, MI Detroit Mercy 93–88 12 February 10, 2017 Detroit, MI Oakland 89–80 13 January 20, 2018 Detroit, MI Oakland 92–86 No. Date Location Winner Score 14 February 9, 2018 Rochester, MI Oakland 87–78 15 January 19, 2019 Detroit, MI Oakland 79–73 16 February 23, 2019 Rochester, MI Oakland 95–75 17 December 28, 2019 Rochester, MI Oakland 78–69 18 January 31, 2020 Detroit, MI Oakland 77–64 19 December 26, 2020 Detroit, MI Oakland 77–75OT 20 December 27, 2020 Detroit, MI Oakland 83–80 21 January 22, 2021 Rochester, MI Oakland 86–81 22 January 23, 2021 Rochester, MI Detroit Mercy 82–72 23 February 13, 2022 Rochester, MI Oakland 75–59 24 November 29, 2023 Detroit, MI Oakland 65–50 Series: Oakland leads 18–6

References

1. Spadafore, Jim (February 16, 2015). "Felder leads as Oakland takes down Detroit this time". The Detroit News. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
2. "Oakland Busts The Shield To Beat Detroit Mercy In Metro Series". Oakland Athletics. February 13, 2022. Retrieved July 8, 2022.