Bears Defeat North Georgia, 78-49, to Open Season

Wednesday, November 25

Macon, Ga.

1:00 PM

Mercer University

1-0,0-0SoCon

North Georgia

0-0,0-0Peach Belt

North Georgia

Mercer

Photo by: Alex Keller

Bears Defeat North Georgia, 78-49, to Open Season

11/25/2020 3:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Felipe Haase grabbed a career-best 13 rebounds.

By: Kraig Doremus

MACON, Ga. – The second season of the Greg Gary era began with Mercer defeating the North Georgia Nighthawks, 79-48, and placing four players in double figures.

Mercer (1-0) got off to a slow start but took the lead for good midway through the first half when Neftali Alvarez knocked down a pair of free throws. North Georgia battled back and pulled within a point, 23-22, with 6:22 remaining in the period before Mercer extended its lead.

Prior to the intermission, Mercer led by as many as nine, 34-25, when Haase converted a layup with 1:22 left in the half. Although the Bears only held a 36-29 lead the intermission, the second half was largely dominated by the home team as they pulled away to win by more than 30 points.

Haase, who scored eight points on the night to go along with a career-best 15 boards, gave Mercer its first double-digit lead less than 45 seconds into the final half. The Bears' lead never fell below seven and quickly returned to double-digits when Maciej Bender dunked on three consecutive possessions.

Layups by freshman Shannon Grant and junior newcomer Leon Ayers gave Mercer a 20-point advantage at the 13:13 mark of the second half, and after North Georgia's Frank Champion hit a jumper, a triple from Alvarez gave the Bears a 21-point lead, which at the time was its largest of the evening, prior to the under-12 media timeout.

For the remainder of the contest, Mercer's lead hovered around the mid-20s, but a pair of Bender dunks sandwiched between an Alvarez free throw made it a 72-44 contest with 2:38 remaining.Mercer's lead surpassed the 30-point mark with under a minute remaining as freshman Jacksen Greco scored his first collegiate points via a three-pointer while Ayers' make from the charity stripe pushed Mercer's lead to 30 points.

The Bears would ultimately win by 31, 79-48. Four players reached double-digits in scoring with Ross Cummings, Ayers III and Alvarez each contributing 15 points. Alvarez led all players with six assists. Cummings shot an impressive 6-for-8 in his return to the floor, including a 3-for-6 tally from three-point range.

Bender was the fourth Bear in double figures with 14 points. The Warsaw, Poland native missed just two shots, going 6-for-8 while also grabbing three boards. Haase contributed eight points and was a force on the glass, grabbing 15 rebounds to set a new career-high. As a team, the Bears' shot 50 percent (31-of-62) with assists on 19 of the 31 baskets.

North Georgia was considerably cooler from the floor, making only 20-of-63 attempts. For the visiting Nighthawks, who will consider today's contest an exhibition due to being an NCAA Division II school, Zach Brown and Darnell Snyers each scored 12 while Eric Jones added 10 points.

COACH GREG GARY QUOTES

ON THE GAME
"Overall, in the second half we cut the number of turnovers in half from the first. That really makes a difference in the game with a standpoint of you energy. You can't give the other team opportunities, and we did a nice job limiting that."

ON NORTH GEORGIA'S APPROACH
"Their defense was good. They were aggressive. They got up in our bodies and that's what we told our guys was going to happen. You can say it all you want to until you're blue in the face, but until they actually go through it, they may not understand that coaches might be right. I thought we did a better job [of battling their physicality] in the second half."

ON DEPTH
"What we did was try to figure out what guys would do well. We have a deep team and if some guys are working well, I'm going to keep rolling with them."

ON FELIPE HAASE
"On the offense end he's great. He has to get better defensively and be able to get in the stance and guard somebody. He understands and he has to do a better job defensively but offensively I love his game, and he did a nice job on the glass tonight with 15 rebounds."

NOTABLES

This is the first season-opening win for the Bears in the Gary era.
The meeting between the Bears and Nighthawks was the first since the 1997-98 campaign. Mercer now holds a 21-1 advantage in the series.
Haase scored eight points but was effective on the glass in his debut for the Orange & Black, grabbing a career-high 15 rebounds. His previous high of 10 came during his freshman season at South Carolina.
A trio of players – Ayers III, Bender and Cummings – each made six shots from the floor.
In addition to Haase, four other players made their Mercer debuts. Alvarez, Ayers III, Greco and Grant each played in a Mercer uniform for the first time.
There was a large difference in three-point shooting between the two teams. Mercer limited North Georgia to 4-of-17 from beyond the arc, while attempting 25 treys and making nine.
Depth was evident for the Bears as nine players played at least 10 minutes in the victory.

UP NEXT
The Bears will travel to Georgia Tech on Friday night for an 8 p.m. contest at McCamish Pavillion. The game can be seen live on both Fox Sports South and the ACC Digital Network Extra. Fans wishing to tune-in on the radio can listen live on the Mercer Sports Network (100.9 The Creek and SportsMic) with the Voice of the Bears, Rick Cameron, on the call.

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.