Mercer University
Fla. Gulf Coast
Bears Fall to FGCU 64-47 in A-Sun Championship Semifinals
3/15/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Mercer women's basketball team couldn't overcome top-seeded Florida Gulf Coast's early long range shooting in a 64-47 loss in the Atlantic Sun Championship semifinals on Saturday afternoon at Alico Arena.
FGCU (25-7) hit seven three-pointers in the first half and used an active defense throughout to come up with nine steals in the contest.
Despite today's loss, Mercer (17-14) has still won the most games over a two-year stretch (37) since the Bears won 39 games during the 1991-92 and 1992-93 seasons.
"I am very proud of how hard our team played tonight because they never gave up and kept playing until the very end," head coach Susie Gardner said. "Florida Gulf Coast is a very good basketball team and they are gritty, tough and play great defense which often times gets overlooked by most people. Precious Bridges and Kendra Grant are usually are go-to scorers, but neither one of them had great games today and I think that was due to FGCU's focused defensive intensity."
After an early pair of FGCU three-pointers, Mercer weathered the initial storm and used a jumper by junior Briana Williams to make the score 8-6 Eagles with 15:47 left in the first half.
The Bears continued to play well in the early goings as a lay-in by junior Teanna Robinson put Mercer in front of FGCU by a score of 12-11 with 13:42 remaining in the first half.
The Eagles started to pull away from Mercer in the middle of the first half, however, using a 16-4 run capped off by a three-pointer by Amanda Moore to make the score 28-16 FGCU with 5:49 to go in the first half.
FGCU continued to stretch out its lead capitalizing on a lay-in by Jenna Cobb just before halftime to take a 40-20 lead over Mercer into the locker room.
It would be the Bears who came out of the locker room strong, though, scoring the first four points of the second half to make the score 40-24 FGCU with 19:22 left in the second half.
The Eagles had a quick answer for the Mercer surge, however, using a pair of three-pointers to jump back out to a 46-26 lead with 18:25 remaining in the contest.
FGCU would maintain a sizeable lead the rest of the way, as Mercer got no closer than 17 points courtesy of a 14-2 run over the last six minutes of game action.
Briana Williams was the only player to score in double figures for Mercer with 12 points while Robinson had eight points and 12 rebounds in a losing effort.
Senior Sharnea Boykin had three assists in the game to move her into sole possession of third place on the A-Sun Conference career assists list with 633 career helpers.
Mercer will now have to wait and see if it gets to participate in postseason play again this season when the 16-team field of the Women's Basketball Invitational is announced on March 17.
