If officials saw the blood on his arm or uniform, they could have forced him to leave the game and get the splatters treated and even have him change his pants.
“I feel if I’m bleeding a little bit I’m playing hard,” Davis said with a shrug and a grin afterward.
And on this night he played especially well.
He led the Raiders with 15 points thanks in part to two deep 3-pointers and an acrobatic dunk that could have put him on ESPN SportsCenter’s Top Ten plays of the day for the third time this season.
He also had five rebounds and three assists, but his biggest contribution, said coach Scott Nagy, was something that doesn’t show up in the box score.
Every Raider you talked to after the game agreed that defense won it for them on a night when they shot 35 percent from the floor.
And no one was any more valuable in that part of the game than Davis, the 6-foot-8 redshirt senior.
“Some of what he does for us is hard to see because he’s so versatile,” said Nagy. “He can guard anybody. He can guard 5s (opposing big men) and he can guard point guards.
“He’s such a good athlete and that’s why he’s so beneficial for us. I’ve been super pleased with him because of how he’s learning and growing on offense, but especially how good he is for us on defense.
“Tonight we really needed (the defense) from him because Parker (6-foo-11 Parker Ernsthausen) was in foul trouble and Mark Alstork was in foul trouble.
“We really needed him and we had to move him around all night.”
It’s been a long time since a Wright State coach has been able to talk like that about Davis.
In his first four years at Wright State, he played in 37 of the 137 games the Raiders played. He redshirted his first season with the program and the following year appeared in 22 games, most during the non-league portion of the schedule.
He began to make strides in the 2014-15 season and had started seven of the first 14 games when he suffered a severe ankle injury against Ohio State. He needed reconstructive surgery after tearing the peroneal tendon and ended up missing 16 of the final 17 games that year and all 35 games last season.
“I’ve done a lot of watching in my career,” he said after the game. “It’s great finally being back out there with my teammates, grinding through the highs and lows and helping the team.”
And he certainly is helping the 11-5 Raiders, said junior point guard Justin Mitchell:
“It’s been maybe three years since he played, so it’s exciting to see him out there. He’s really helping the team and he’s definitely showing he’s a leader on the floor.”
Mitchell admitted he’s just fun to watch. Too.
Davis is a high-flying, long-braided highlight reel for the Raiders with those crowd-rousing dunks — slams against Cedarville and Urbana this season made the SportsCenter Top Ten — and Thursday night he again buried two deep 3s from the top of the key.
He leads the Raiders in field-goal percentage (50.3) and blocked shots, is second in scoring (15.6 ppg.) and is third in rebounding and free-throw percentage. He’s in the Horizon League’s top 10 in four of those categories, including fifth in scoring.
As for Thursday night’s dunk, a double-clutch effort in mid-air that ended with a one-handed jam over a stunned Viking defender, Davis said it was really a miscalculated layup.
“I went up and was just going to lay it in, but I didn’t know I was gonna get that high,” he laughed. “Once I was up there and saw the rim, I figured I might just as well dunk it.”
It all worked out perfectly, or almost so.
He wasn’t sure if that scratch just above his wrist came from a frustrated Viking defender or the rim.
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