What happened to Detroit Mercy assistant coach Garland Mance 65 seconds into the second half of the Detroit’s 63-43 loss to Kansas University was indicative of how everyone at Allen Fieldhouse must have felt about the play of both teams much of the night.

Mance – who wasn’t feeling well before the game – threw up on the Detroit bench and spent the rest of the game in the locker room and with trainers.

“I’ll be all right. I think I just ate something bad,” Mance said. “We had some barbecue at the hotel before the game. I felt sick before the game.”

Mance wasn’t the only person feeling under the weather; Kansas’ Brandon Rush had the flu. Rush just laughed when asked if he was glad he didn’t make a similar scene.

Nine minutes after the delay to clean up Mance’s mess, the Titans found themselves just four points down following a Jon Goode three-pointer.

Former McDonald’s All-American Brandon Cotton had a slow start to the night, taking 12 minutes before getting a basket.

But after that, Cotton began penetrating the KU defense and finished with 20 points off 8-for-20 shooting.

However, with two minutes remaining and the team down by just 11 points, Titans coach Perry Watson decided to leave his leading scorer for the season on the bench.

“He had kind of lost himself out there emotionally and (was) kind of (whining),” Watson said about Cotton, who had missed three shots and turned the ball over twice over a six-minute span before sitting out the closing minutes. “And I just wanted to give him a chance to regroup and just try to get him back focused. And I thought he just kind of lost his focus.”

Ryvon Covile – who was fourth in the nation in rebounding coming into the game – had a game-high 10 rebounds.

In contrast, five KU players had five boards each. Covile also dropped in seven points.

Watson’s team shot 30 percent from the field – their poorest shooting performance all year – which in turn extended KU’s streak of holding opponents under 50 percent shooting, now at 18 straight games.

“I liked the fight my guys showed – especially against a team as well coached as Kansas,” the Detroit coach said. “I thought the way we shot the ball was not worth a crap, but I thought we (were) able to hang in for the most part because of defending and really playing hard. So I’m really proud of my guys.”

The Titans will continue their three-game road trip Jan. 2 at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Jan. 4.

“I think my young guys (are) growing up in terms of coming to a tough environment like this because we have seven first-year players,” Watson said.