Men’s Basketball Falls to Holy Cross

Monday, December 2

Boca Raton, Fla.

11 a.m.

Mercer University

4-5

Holy Cross

1-7

Holy Cross

Mercer

12/2/2019 2:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Ethan Stair led the Bears with 19 points

By: Travis Rae

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Mercer men's basketball team dropped its final game of the Boca Raton Beach Classic presented by Sport Changes Life on Monday afternoon. The Bears were defeated by Holy Cross, 81-67.

Ethan Stair led the Bears with 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting and he collected a team-high eight rebounds in the loss. James Glisson III followed with 16 points off the bench for Mercer. Mercer shot 45 percent from the floor, while Holy Cross shot 52.5 percent.

Early in the contest, the Bears and Crusaders traded buckets and a layup by Glisson III tied the game at 6-6. The next time down the court for Mercer, Glisson III gave the Bears a two-point lead, 8-6. The lead would go back and forth and after a Djordje Dimitrijevic three Mercer led 15-12.

After Holy Cross tied the game at 18-18, Mercer scored the next five points on a Diego Rivera layup and a Luke Hamilton three-pointer. The Bears and Crusaders continued to trade baskets and the largest lead over the final seven-minute of the half was four points, 39-35, after a Glisson III layup. However, Kyle Copeland hit a three-pointer to end the first half and Mercer went into halftime ahead by one, 39-38.

Mercer came out in the second half and again built a lead up to five points, 45-40, after a Glisson III dunk. The lead did not last long as the Crusaders started heating up from the outside. After back-to-back three-pointers, Mercer found themselves down one, 46-45.

The Bears got itself within a bucket but the Crusaders answered back and grew its lead to 15 points, 67-52, with 6:50 left in the contest. Over the next four minutes, Holy Cross went on a 14-4 run taking a 25-point lead. Mercer continued to battle but would fall 81-67 to Holy Cross.

QUOTABLES
Coach Greg Gary – "I knew in the first five minutes that they play hard, they're hungry. They hadn't won a game. They fight and they are going to fight. In the first five minutes, I knew they had more pop than we did. The first play of the game I called a timeout because I could see it, I could feel it and that's something that we didn't bounce back from, in my opinion, to be consistent over the forty minutes."

NOTABLES

Ethan Stair led the Bears with 19 points in the contest on 7-of-13 shooting. He also collected a team-high eight rebounds.
James Glisson III scored 16 points off the bench on 7-of-12 shooting.
Mercer struggled to hit threes as they shot 26.3 percent (5-for-19) from behind the arc in the contest.
For the second straight contest, the Bears allowed its opponents to shoot over 50 percent from the floor.

UP NEXT
The Bears return to action on Saturday, Dec. 7 when they host Georgia State at Hawkins Arena. Tipoff is set for 4:30 p.m.

How to Follow the Bears:
For complete coverage of Mercer Basketball, please follow the Bears on social media at @MercerMBB (Twitter), /MercerBasketball (Facebook) and @Mercer_MBB (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.