Mercer University
Fla. Gulf Coast
Bears Fall to Florida Gulf Coast in A-Sun Title Game
3/9/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MACON, Ga. – The Mercer men's basketball team saw its NCAA Tournament hopes dashed on its home floor by Florida Gulf Coast for the second-straight year on Saturday, falling to the Eagles by an 88-75 margin in the General Shale Brick A-Sun Final.
Mercer fell to 23-11 (14-4 A-Sun) while Florida Gulf Coast earned the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance and improved to 24-10 (13-5 A-Sun). The Bears now await seeding in the NIT after earning an automatic bid to the tournament by virtue of the A-Sun regular season championship.
Senior Travis Smith paced Mercer with 16 points in the loss while adding three rebounds, an assist and a steal. He was joined in double figures by juniors Jakob Gollon, Bud Thomas and Langston Hall. Gollon came up just shy of a double-double with 14 points, nine rebounds, two assists and a steal. Thomas collected 14 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal, while Hall also narrowly missed a double-double with 12 points, nine assists and six boards.
FGCU's 88 points was the most allowed by the Mercer defense all year, as the Eagles posted 50-second half points to break away from a two-point game at halftime. In the end, five FGCU players scored double digits, led by sophomore point guard Brett Comer's 21 points. Comer was later named the A-Sun tournament MVP.
Thomas and Hall gathered All-Tournament team selections after 14.3 and 14.0 points per game during the tournament, respectively. The honors marked first-time All-Tournament team selections for both players.
In the first half, Mercer jumped out to an 11-3 lead behind support of an Orange and Black clad crowd of 3,494 strong. The Eagles responded with 15-6 surge to take their first lead of the game at 18-17 with 9:22 to play before halftime. From there, the teams would exchange leads nine times before the Eagles closed the period on an 8-4 run to go ahead 38-36 at the break.
At the outset of the second period, the FGCU blitzed Mercer with a 13-2 charge to go ahead by 11 before the 17:00 mark. The Eagles would eventually ahead by as many as 17 before six-unanswered Mercer points, capped by a T.J. Hallice's fast break dunk, cut the deficit to 11 with 4:17 to play.
Mercer's comeback was halted by four-straight FGCU points that pushed the lead back to 15 with 2:27 to go. From there, there Bears would get no closer than 10 before the final buzzer.
Junior center Monty Brown led Mercer's reserves with six points on two-of-four shooting from the floor and the free throw line. Junior Daniel Coursey finished with four blocks in the loss, moving his career total to 131 and leaving him three rejections shy of 15th place in A-Sun history.
Hall's nine assists elevated his career total to 420, moving him into 23rd place A-Sun history. Gollon's nine rebounds included the 500th of his career and moved his collegiate total to 505.
Seeding for the NIT will be announced on Sunday, March 17.
