Bears Outlast Furman for Exhilarating OT Victory

Thursday, January 21

Macon, Ga.

7 P.M.

Mercer University

9-4,3-1SoCon

Furman

5-8,1-3SoCon

OT 1

Furman

Mercer

Photo by: Will Stone

Bears Outlast Furman for Exhilarating OT Victory

1/21/2021 11:53:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Shannon Titus recorded a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds in the win

By: Stephen Waldman

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer women's basketball team treated its fans to some free basketball as the Bears posted a 69-66 overtime victory over Furman on Thursday evening.

The back-and-forth affair saw 11 lead changes and eight ties despite Mercer spending nearly 32 of the 45 minutes with the lead.

The Bears, who won their third consecutive Southern Conference contest, played their first home game since Dec. 15 ending a 37-day hiatus. Juniors Jaron Dougherty and Amoria Neal-Tysor paced the team offensively with 25 and 19 points, respectively, while senior Shannon Titus posted 11 points and a season-high 13 rebounds for her first double-double of the year. Neal-Tysor connected on four 3-pointers in the contest while tallying six rebounds and three steals. Titus added three assists, three steals and two blocks to her stat line for the evening, while Dougherty brought down five rebounds and was a personal best 9-of-11 from the charity stripe.

As a team, Mercer protected the ball and won the turnover battle, 23-9, which resulted in a 21-4 edge in points off turnovers. The Orange and Black generated numerous second-chance opportunities by crashing the offensive glass and outscored the Paladins in that category, 16-6. The Bears shot 35.3 percent (6-of-17) from beyond-the-arc and 81.3 percent (13-of-16) from the free throw line.

How It Happened
Both offenses started hot, combining to make six of the first nine shots through the first 3:39 of the game. After the two sides traded baskets to open the contest, the Bears used a 6-0 run to take an 11-6 advantage with 4:19 remaining in the first quarter. Furman's Sydney James answered for the visitors, however, as her 3-pointer brought it back to a one-possession game. The Bears cranked up the heat in the defensive zone over the final five minutes of the opening period, forcing the Paladins into four turnovers over that stretch. Jada Lewis connected on a late trey to give the home squad a six-point lead after the first 10 minutes, 18-12.

Jada with the 𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚙 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔! 😮#DefineYourMoment | @jada3x13 pic.twitter.com/Ja14JasbYN
— Mercer Women's Basketball (@Mercer_WBB) January 22, 2021

A barrage of 3-pointers from Neal-Tysor and Titus, interrupted by a triple from Furman's Tate Walters, continued the sharpshooting trend from the first frame as Mercer pushed its lead to nine, 24-15. An ensuing 10-2 run by the visitors trimmed the lead to one at 26-25 with 5:03 remaining before halftime. The Bears and Paladins stepped up their defensive efforts for the next three minutes as the score remained the same until a Dougherty jumper with 2:05 on the clock. Another Furman 3-pointer by Greyson Boone tied the game for the first time since the first minute of the contest at 28-all, but Dougherty knocked down a pair of free throws to regain the lead. Neal-Tysor drained her third trey of the game with 51 ticks left to send the Bears into halftime with a 33-28 advantage.

🔥🔥🔥#DefineYourMoment | @bballmori10 pic.twitter.com/gFoED9pHyc
— Mercer Women's Basketball (@Mercer_WBB) January 22, 2021

The home side came out of the locker room and continued its scoring streak in the second half as a pair of Dougherty jumpers extended the run to 9-0. Furman once again had a response, however, as it went on a 14-4 run to take its first lead since the early going, 42-41. Dougherty once again provided the response for the Bears with five-straight points to put Mercer back ahead, 46-42. The two teams would be deadlocked from thereon out as neither squad held more than a two-possession lead for the rest of the game.

AND OOOONNNNEEEEE!!!!! 💪😤#DefineYourMoment | @Jabron42 pic.twitter.com/H9UMkUkkaA
— Mercer Women's Basketball (@Mercer_WBB) January 22, 2021

Mercer entered the final 10 minutes of regulation clinging to a two-point lead, 48-46, but a Tierra Hodges' three gave the Paladins a 49-48 lead. Neal-Tysor answered with a 3-pointer of her own, but Boone countered with a make from downtown to regain the one-point edge for the visitors. A layup by Celena Taborn with 6:31 remaining gave Furman its largest lead of the game, 54-51, but an old-fashioned 3-point play by Lewis brought the two teams even once more.

Dougherty continued her hot shooting from the charity stripe at 3:20 and 2:43, breaking the tie on both occasions by knocking down both of her free throws. The Bears clung to their two-point lead for 2:35 of the final 2:43 seconds of the fourth quarter, but a Walters layup tied the game with eight seconds left to force overtime.

Furman pushed ahead 60-58 and 62-60 early in the extra period, but the Bears had a response each time. A swift 5-0 run by the home squad created just enough separation with 1:08 remaining. Dougherty gave Mercer its final lead of the evening with a free throw before the team's defense forced a pair of turnovers on back-to-back possessions that resulted in consecutive jumpers from Neal-Tysor and Titus that padded the lead.

Hodges did her best to keep Furman in the game late with a couple of makes in the final minute, but her efforts came too late as Mercer secured the exhilarating victory.

There's no place like ℍ𝕆𝕄𝔼! 🏠#DefineYourMoment | #LightTheBridge pic.twitter.com/cVPINSkYBC
— Mercer Women's Basketball (@Mercer_WBB) January 22, 2021

Quotables – Head coach Susie Gardner
On how it feels to win close games like tonight…
"We made a whole lot of mistakes tonight and still found a way to win. It certainly wasn't the way we drew it up, but Furman is tough. Playing Furman is like playing our scout team - we know what they do and they know what we do. Sometimes it just comes down to players making plays. They have Tierra Hodges, who is one of the best players in our conference, and she made some big time plays for them. They played well, and we just played a little bit better at the right times. It was a game that either team could have won."

On preparing for the quick turnaround against Furman on Saturday…
"We did the same thing at Greensboro. This is the hand that the SoCon has dealt us this year. It is not one that I would have chosen, but I have to adjust to that as a coach. We're going to watch the film from tonight's game and talk about the things that went well and what we can tweak, but that's the same thing they're going to be doing. When you play a team so close together like this, especially when there's so much familiarity, it becomes a defensive battle. Fortunately, we hit our free throws tonight and got 19 offensive rebounds. We didn't shoot the ball well tonight, but we were getting to the offensive glass."

On what has led to recent success…
"We have a few new players that are playing a lot of minutes for us. So we have the combination of the returners and some new players. We didn't get to play as many non-conference games as we usually because of the late start to the season. Then we had an 11-day break right after Christmas, and we really utilized that time to work on us. I feel that we've had some growth during that time."

Assistant Coach Ben Wierzba

Player of the Game
Junior Jaron Dougherty was the go-to scorer for the Bears tonight as she tallied a game-high 25 points in the win. The Buford, Ga., native finished 8-of-17 from the field and 9-of-11 from the charity stripe. Dougherty set new career highs in free throws made and attempted while posting her 12th consecutive game in double figures. She added five rebounds, an assist and a steal in the game.

Notables
» The Bears played their first game at Hawkins Arena since Dec. 15.
» Mercer has had a player score 25 or more points in all four SoCon games this year.
» The Bears moved to 2-0 in overtime games this year.
» Mercer improved to 4-2 on its home floor this season.
» The Bears' nine turnovers marked their fifth game with fewer than 10 giveaways this year.
» Mercer has won six of its last seven and eight of the last 10 games.
» This just Mercer's second victory when being held under 70 points.
» Dougherty reached double figures for the 12th consecutive game.
» Dougherty posted her sixth 20-point performance of the year and her third with at least 25 points.
» Dougherty tallied her 15th career game with at least 20 points.
» Dougherty notched career highs in free throws made (9) and attempted (11).
» Neal-Tysor's scored in doubles figures for the 10th time this season.
» Neal-Tysor's connected on at least three 3-pointers for the seventh time this year.
» Neal-Tysor's recorded her 250th career field goal made.
» Titus recorded her eighth career double-double with 11 points and a season-high 13 rebounds.
» Titus documented her 400th career made field goal.
» Titus now has 992 career points, eight shy of becoming the 27th member of Mercer's 1,000-point club.
» Titus tallied her 10th career double-digit rebound performance.
» Allie Thayne recorded a steal for the third straight game.

Up Next
The Bears will close out their weekend series with Furman on Saturday at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, as well as on the radio at 100.9 "The Creek" and Sports Mic with the voice of the Bears, Rick Cameron, on the call.

Follow the Bears
For complete coverage of Mercer Women's Basketball, please follow the Bears on social media at @Mercer_WBB (Twitter), /MercerWBB (Facebook) and @MercerWBB (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.