Mercer University
St. Andrews
Mercer Races Past St. Andrews, 98-56
12/27/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MACON, Ga. – The Mercer men's basketball team placed four players in double figures and senior guard Langston Hall broke another milestone as the Bears raced past St. Andrews 98-56 Tuesday evening at Hawkins Arena in the final non-conference game of the year.
Mercer (9-4) caps its non-conference slate with a record nine wins under head coach Bob Hoffman, while the Bears stay perfect on their home floor at 7-0.
Hall stole the show in the early going, knocking three-pointers on four straight possessions and hitting five treys in a four-minute span to give Mercer an early 19-8 advantage.
"I thought Langston (Hall) set the tone early, he hit those shots and got us going," said Hoffman. "Our guys were real unselfish the whole night. 24 assists on 33 baskets is playing team basketball and that was really special."
Hall continued to shine with 10:21 left in the first half when the guard dished out his second assist of the game and 500th of his career when Daniel Coursey scooped home a layup to give the Bears a 27-10 lead. He became just the 12th player in Atlantic Sun Conference history to reach 500 assists. Hall entered the game ranked No. 29 in the country in total assists.
Mercer continued to pull away from there with a 16-2 run, fueled by a pair of three-pointers by senior Kevin Canevari to make the score 43-14 with 5:35 remaining in the first half.
St. Andrews managed to cut Mercer's lead down to 22, but an emphatic dunk by junior TJ Hallice sent the Bears into halftime with a 55-27 advantage.
The Bears continued to pour it on in the second half, leading by as many as 44 points before picking up a 42-point win.
Hall led all scorers with 17 points in just 14 minutes of action, while Monty Brown added 12 points and six rebounds. Coursey and Canevari chipped in 11 points apiece to round out the players in double figures.
Mercer's 24 assists were two shy of the program's single-game record, as nine different players recorded an assist, led by six from Canevari. The Bears finished the contest shooting 55.9-percent from the floor and outscoring the Knights 46-24 in the paint.
The 18-game A-Sun schedule will open Monday, Dec. 30 when Mercer travels to Jacksonville to take on the Dolphins at 7:30 p.m. The conference opener is the first in a two-game swing to the River City with North Florida following on New Year's Day.
