Mercer University
Belmont
Belmont Edges Men's Hoops, 62-61
2/25/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MACON, Ga. – In front of a raucous University Center record crowd of 3,497 the Mercer men's basketball team took top-seeded Belmont to the wire on Saturday, but redshirt sophomore Jake Gollon's last second jumper found iron and the Bruins escaped with a 62-61 victory. On a day in which he was honored before his final regular season-game at the UC, senior Justin Cecil led all scorers with 17 points.
Mercer wrapped up the regular season with a 21-10 (13-5 A-Sun) record while Belmont finished its regular season slate at 24-7 (16-2 A-Sun).
Cecil's 17 points came on the strength of five-of-nine shooting from three-point range in 25 minutes of play. He also booked six rebounds and two steals in the losing effort.
Langston Hall scored in double figures for the seventh time in his last eight games, collecting 13 points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal. Sophomore Daniel Coursey posted eight points and tied career-high with six blocks, moving his season rejection total to 74. That figure broke the program's previous single-season block record of 72 held by Scott Farley.
Prior to the game, Mercer's Macon campus was buzzing with anticipation of Saturday's heavyweight bout between the two top seeds in next week's Atlantic Sun tournament. The action that unfolded on the court lived up to the hype as the teams battled their way through seven tie scores and nine lead changes.
At the outset, Mercer fed off the crowd energy and raced out to an 8-2 advantage in the opening five minutes. Belmont would fight back and go in front 9-8 before another Mercer surge gave the Bears an eight point edge (22-14) with 5:39 to go before halftime.
The senior laden Bruins showed their pedigree in the final minutes of the half, closing the stanza on a 12-5 charge to earn a 27-27 tie at the half.
The Bears came out of the intermission firing on all cylinders, ripping off a 7-0 run capped by a two-handed slam by Coursey. From there, Mercer would push its lead to nine twice before Belmont returned with a 13-3 charge to go in front by three (54-51) with 4:41 remaining.
In the final four minutes of action, the standing-room-only crowd got what it paid for in a flurry of action that featured three lead changes and three tie scores.
Belmont's Reece Chamberlain canned two-of-three free throws with 31 tics left to knot the game at 61 and hand possession back to Mercer. Mercer moved the ball around before finding Gollon some space on the wing. His three-pointer was short, and the Bears were forced to foul Belmont's defensive rebounder.
Mick Hedgepeth nailed the front end of his one-and-one and Coursey pulled down the rebound. With a chance to win the game, the ball found its way into the hands of Gollon once again. After initially being draped by two defenders, he moved through traffic and released a left-handed floater that came just after the final horn.
Mercer's loss was the team's first defeat at the hands of an A-Sun opponent in the UC this season.
Mercer returns to the UC on Wednesday in the first round of the 2012 General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Championship. Mercer is set to face Lipscomb at 8:30 p.m.
