Tide Too Much to Handle

Wednesday, November 24

Tuscaloosa, AL

7:00 PM ET

Mercer University

Alabama

Photo by: James Thomas

11/24/2021 10:04:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Bears drop 55-48 game to Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Strong runs in the second and third quarters were not enough for the Mercer Bears as they dropped a Wednesday night tilt to the SEC's Alabama Crimson Tide in Coleman Coliseum. Amoria Neal-Tysor's 17 points were not enough as the Bears fell to Alabama by a 55-48 margin.

How it Happened
The Bears (3-3) clawed their way back from an early hole when Alabama (3-2) opened the contest with an 8-0 run and a lead that got as high as 13 before Mercer made it only a two-point deficit in the early stages of the second to end the half down just 26-22. While Alabama had just an eight-point advantage in the third quarter, they did get stretch their lead to 14 before Mercer closed it back down to seven, which was the final margin.

For the fifth time in the season's six games, Neal-Tysor hit double-figures in points with 19 and added six rebounds – five of which came on the defensive side. Neal-Tysor's 19 points tied her high season-high, which was set just six days ago at Georgia. Shannon Titus was the only other Bear who hit double-figures in points, as she contributed 10 to the cause.

Jaron Dougherty collected 10 rebounds, nine of them coming on the defensive end, which aided in the comeback efforts for the Bears.

The Mercer defense held the Crimson Tide's Brittany Davis to 13 points, the senior guard came into the game averaging just north of 20 points per contest.

Quotables – Head Coach Susie Gardner
Thoughts on the game
"I thought we let an opportunity get away from us tonight. When you hold an opponent to 55 points as we did tonight, you should be able to pull out the win. We missed too many layups and when you're playing a SEC opponent, you've got to take advantage of every scoring opportunity. We're just not hitting enough shots. We're scoring 48 points, so we've got to have more productivity from our scorers and those players who are known for offense have to step up and give us more offensively. It was disappointing because we prepared so well. Had a great day of prep yesterday – they were really focused in on the game plan, they were really attentive and felt good about going into the game. There are some things we have control over on the court and as a competitor, you have to compete in those moments.

On how to prepare for the South Alabama game
"We only have a day – this is how this entire month has been. It's very difficult to make team corrections and player corrections when you have one day to prepare for the next opponent, so we'll watch film individually with this Alabama game, but we have one day to get ready for our next opponent, so there is not a whole lot of time to make the corrections that need to be made fundamentally. We'll just have to learn and grow on the fly during games and learn from our mistakes as well as continue the growth of the program."

Notables
• Neal-Tysor scored double-digit points for the fifth time in six games, and the only time she did not, she had nine
• Erin Houpt, a freshman guard, has hit at least one three-pointer in three of the six games
• Friday's game at South Alabama will close the season's longest road swing

Up Next
Mercer will finish the four-game road swing with a contest at South Alabama on Friday, November 26. Tipoff from Mobile is set for Noon Eastern.

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