Mercer University
St. Andrews
Men's Basketball Cruises Past St. Andrews, 62-33
12/2/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MACON, Ga. – Junior guard Ike Nwamu hit seven 3's and scored a career-high 27 points while leading the Mercer men's basketball team to a wire-to-wire 62-33 victory over St. Andrews at Hawkins Arena on Tuesday night.
Mercer stayed unbeaten at home and improved to 4-4 overall while St. Andrews slipped to 3-4 on the year.
Junior point guard Phillip Leonard finished just shy of a double-double with nine points and a career-high 10 assists, while senior T.J. Hallice collected a career-high 10 rebounds to go along with five points.
Mercer was perfectly content to shoot over the St. Andrews zone at the outset, with junior Jibri Bryan and Nwamu combining for 4-of-5 3-point shooting in the first five minutes while staking the hosts to a 14-4 advantage.
The Bears' lead would swell to 15 at the 13:00 juncture before St. Andrews put together scores on consecutive possessions to get within 11 with 10:52 remaining in the period. The stretch would continue as the Knights ultimately scored 10-unanswered to climb within five with 7:02 to go before half.
The five-point margin was short-lived, however, as Mercer freshman Jordan Strawberry dished to sophomore James Bento for a layup that started an 11-3 Mercer surge that sent the hosts to the locker room ahead, 32-19.
The Bears continued the run out of intermission, scoring 11 of the first 14 points of the second half to go up by 23 at the 15:06 mark. The hosts would maintain at least a 21-point lead the rest of the night before settling on the 32-point victory.
Mercer outscored the undersized St. Andrews squad 24-14 in the paint, with forwards Darious Moten, James Bento and Niklas Ney combining for nine additional points. As a team, the Bears shot a season-high 53.7 percent (22-of-41) from the field while also connecting on 50 percent (9-of-18) 3-point shots.
Mercer held St. Andrews to just 15.0 percent (3-of-20) shooting from beyond the arc in the win. Junior forward Jeff Gulley led St. Andrews with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
Mercer continues its four-game homestand with its Southern Conference opener against VMI on Saturday. Game time at Hawkins Arena is slated for 4 p.m.
