Box Score
MACON, Ga. – Mercer University men’s basketball team finished like thoroughbreds on Saturday afternoon at the University Center, steamrolling Stetson University, 91-57. The victory did many things for the Bears (10-11 overall and 6-5 in the Atlantic Sun Conference), not the least of which was stop the smarting from a recent three-game skid.
A comfortable win was also a good cure for a Mercer team that had seen a couple games get away on last-second shots and had a penchant for frittering away large leads. But that would not be the case this day.
The victory was the Bears’ largest win over the Hatters since SU joined the A-Sun and the biggest margin in the series versus Stetson in nearly 62 years (since a 64-35 blistering issued on Feb. 23, 1948).
The 34-point cushion was also Mercer’s biggest A-Sun win since the 1994-95 season, when the Bears bested then-league member, Florida Atlantic by 37 points (95-58).
“This was a huge win for us,” said Mercer head coach
Bob Hoffman. “We have to continue to get better. Those first seven minutes might have been some of the best team defense we have played all year.
“We made our shots and had defensive stops. We had lots of good individual accomplishments, but the best accomplishment was how well we worked together as a team.”
The day began with a pre-game ceremony honoring senior All-America candidate
James Florence for breaking the school’s all-time scoring record back on Dec. 29, 2009 at UNC-Charlotte. Yet, as fate would have it, Florence was low man of a group of five Bears in double-digit scorers in the game. But no one stole Florence’s ‘thunder’ as much as the unselfish senior gave it away.
With Stetson’s defense obviously keying on Florence, the guard gave off a game-leading seven assists. As a team, the Bears’ team 24 assists on its 34 field goals made.
Junior
Jeff Smith pumped in a career-high 25 points, making good on eight-of-11 from the field. Among his numbers was a seven-of-eight effort from three-point range. Smith also had five assists for the Bears’ cause.
Senior forward
Daniel Emerson amassed his 17
th double-double of the season – and 34
th of his Mercer career – with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Emerson’s six-of-eight shooting night helped the Bears’ team to its nearly 59-percent shooting from the field (34-of-57) versus the Hatters for the game.
Senior sharpshooter
E.J. Kusnyer rattled home 15 points by connecting on five-of-eight from long range. It was Kusnyer’s 13
th game in double figures this season.
Florence finished the day with 11 points for his 42nd consecutive game in double digits. It was also the 100th double-figure scoring game (out of 109 played) in Florence’s four-year career at Mercer.
For the 17
th time in the team’s 21 games, junior forward
Brandon Moore led the Bears’ bench players in scoring. Moore matched Florence’s 11 points towards his team’s win. Moore also had a good shooting night, hitting five-of-seven attempts from the floor.
Mercer narrowly missed adding a sixth double digit scorer, and second double-double performance, from forward
Brian Mills. The junior pulled down a game-leading 14 boards and scored nine points in 25 minutes of court time.
Stetson was led by A.J. Smith’s 15 points and six rebounds. Tyshawn Patterson came off the Hatters’ bench to tally 10 points as the team’s only other double-figure scorer.
The win also extracted a measure of revenge after Stetson scored a mild upset by defeating Mercer in DeLand, Fla., 76-69, last weekend. The Bears would also drop the second game of the South Florida trip at Florida Gulf Coast University (71-70) two days later in Ft. Myers.
Mercer will get its opportunity to avenge that defeat as well on Monday evening when FGCU comes to the University Center for a 9 p.m. bout versus the Bears. The game is the second half of a women’s-men’s doubleheader that evening, with both games being televised live on Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast cable television.