Mercer University
VMI
Men's Basketball Cruises Past VMI in SoCon Quarterfinals
3/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The Mercer men's basketball team looked awfully comfortable in its Southern Conference Tournament debut, holding a potent VMI offense to just 20 first half points en route to an 89-61 quarterfinal victory on Saturday at the US Cellular Center.
Mercer's 18th win of the season pushed the Bears through to Sunday's semifinals, where the Bears meet No. 10 Furman at 8:30 p.m. The Paladins advanced to the semis by virtue of a 69-67 upset of second-seeded Chattanooga.
Senior T.J. Hallice netted a career-high 19 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Junior Ike Nwamu also scored 19, while junior Jibri Bryan and freshman Stephon Jelks added 14 and 10, respectively.
Mercer won despite losing the services of All-SoCon senior Darious Moten, who was injured just three minutes into the game and never returned. Hallice's career-high scoring mark helped minimize the loss, while Jelks and sophomore Lawrence Brown were more than adequate in support with a combined 21 points and 14 rebounds.
After erasing an initial 5-0 deficit with 11-unanswered points, the Bears built a 10-point lead less than eight minutes in and were never threatened the rest of the way. At halftime, the Bears enjoyed a 42-20 lead and had held VMI's nation-leading 3-point attack to just 3-of-16 efficiency.
Mercer, on the other hand, shot 45.2 percent from the floor and hit five 3-pointers during the period. The Bears were even more deadly in the second half, hitting 58.1 percent of their shots to go ahead by as many as 32 before the final buzzer.
Brown finished with a career-high nine points, five rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal. Jelks collected nine rebounds, two steals and an assist to go along with his 12 points.
Ten different Mercer players reached the scoring column as the bench exploded for 32 points. The Bears also scored 44 points in the paint, 14 points off turnovers, 13 second chance points and 13 fast break points.
Head coach Bob Hoffman improved to 10-5 in conference tournament games and 6-1 in conference tournament openers. The Bears are now one win away from advancing to a conference tournament final for the fourth time under his leadership.
Mercer swept the season series with Furman, winning 67-64 in Macon and 74-68 in Greenville. The winner of Sunday's semifinal will face the winner of No. 1 Wofford versus No. 5 Western Carolina in Monday's SoCon Championship game.
