Bears Post Wire-to-Wire Win Over Bulldogs, 88-52

Monday, February 22

Macon, Ga.

7:00 PM

Mercer University

14-9,7-8SoCon

The Citadel

12-10,5-10SoCon

The Citadel

Mercer

Photo by: Kayla Davis

Bears Post Wire-to-Wire Win Over Bulldogs, 88-52

2/22/2021 11:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Felipe Haase scored 17 points

By: Kraig Doremus

MACON, Ga. – Felipe Haase scored 17 points, all in the first half, to lead Mercer to a dominant 88-52 wire-to-wire win over The Citadel Bulldogs on Monday night.

Mercer (14-9, 7-8 SoCon) jumped out to an 8-3 lead thanks to six early points from the speedy Neftali Alvarez. After a James Glisson III basket to start the game, Alvarez hit two layups which were sandwiched between a pair of free throws, extending the Orange & Black's lead to five by the 16:38 mark of the opening half. With his team holding a 10-5 lead, Haase caught fire from beyond the arc just 4:07 into the game. The 6-foot-9 forward first hit a layup before nailing three-pointers on each of Mercer's next three possessions. Haase outscored The Citadel 11-2 in that run and pushed Mercer's lead to 21-7 only 7:06 into the contest. After The Citadel's Stephen Clark scored, freshman Shannon Grant got started with his career night thanks to back-to-back layups. Grant was fouled on the second layup and made the free throw following the timeout, extending Mercer's lead to 26-9 with 11:33 to play.

Haase knocked down his fourth and fifth triples of the evening prior to the eight-minute mark of the initial half, while Ross Cummings also connected from downtown. The three treys pushed Mercer's lead over 20, 34-12.

The Citadel (12-10, 5-10 SoCon) got Mercer's lead down to 14 with 5:50 until the intermission, but a layup by Glisson III followed by a three-pointer from Leon Ayers III quickly lengthened the Bears' advantage. The Bulldogs responded, cutting into the lead once again, and they appeared primed to trail by 13 or less at the break, but a Cummings three-pointer, which was followed by Jeff Gary's field goal from just steps inside the three-point line, gave Mercer a commanding 46-28 lead after 20 minutes.

Cummings started the final half on fire, connecting from beyond the arc on two consecutive possessions with his second triple being the catalyst for a 13-0 Mercer run. Ayers III contributed the next two points from the charity stripe before Glisson III had his way in the post with the Bulldogs. The sophomore forward made a pair of layups before swishing a jump shot. Alvarez's steal and layup in transition at the 13:32 mark of the second half caused The Citadel to burn a timeout as the Bears had doubled up the visiting Bulldogs, 64-32.

The Orange & Black's lead reached 35 when Grant hit his fourth shot of the night and second in as many possessions to give the Bears an unbreakable 77-42 lead. The Citadel cut five points off Mercer's advantage before Victor Bafutto slammed home a Jovan Tucker miss with 4:46 left. Not to be denied, Tucker found his way into the scoring column on the next possession. Over the final 3:08, three different Bears scored with Bafutto nailing an impressive hook shot from the left block before roommates Patrick Urey and Mitch Prendergast both scored. Urey scored with 2:45 left, while Prendergast hit a three-pointer with 45 seconds left for Mercer's final points in the dominant 88-52 victory.

15 different Bears received playing time in the rout with all players seeing the floor for at least three minutes. 13 of the 15 student-athletes contributed at least two points with Haase's 17 leading the way. All of his 17 points came over the first 20 minutes as he connected on a season-high five three-pointers and shot 6-for-12 on the night with 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the year and first since December 22nd. Glisson III landed in double figures for the second consecutive contest and sixth time in his sophomore campaign, tying his season-high of 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting to go along with five boards. In addition to the aforementioned Haase and Glisson III, Cummings reached double digits with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting. The sharpshooting guard hit three of his six tries from beyond the arc, moving into 18^th on Mercer's all-time scoring list with 1,201 career points. Grant was the fourth and final Bear in double figures, posting 10 points in 10 minutes, hitting double figures for the first time in his career. Mercer shot a scorching 53.0 percent (35-of-66) from the floor and held a 50-28 advantage on the glass. Four players – Haase (10), Alvarez (6), Glisson III (5) and Bafutto (5) – grabbed at least five boards.

The Citadel shot 31.7 percent (19-of-60) and struggled mightily from beyond the arc, going just 4-of-26 (15.4 percent). The Bulldogs were led by Rudy Fitzgibbons III and Kaiden Rice who both scored 10 points. The Bears played stellar defense on Southern Conference Player of the Year candidate Hayden Brown, limiting him to five points and three rebounds in 23 minutes.

Coach Greg Gary Quotables
Full Audio

ON THE TEAM WIN
"Yeah, it was a great win for us. The Citadel has such good shooters, and we got them out of sync. You cannot let them get comfortable. We hit some shots early, but The Citadel also missed some shots that will usually go in. Felipe [Haase] got hot in the first half. What I liked about that besides the fact that he was hitting shots was that his teammates were looking for him. They kept trying to find him, and that's something that we preached was sharing the basketball and playing as a team. He has been playing well recently. It is what he needs to do down the stretch. When we move [the basketball] and shoot like we did it helps. I thought Felipe and James [Glisson III] did a nice job on the boards, even our guards did. Neftali [Alvarez] had six rebounds. I call it gang rebounding, all of them have to get in there and try to get rebounds. I thought our performance was great. It was good to see the guys smiling and having some fun out there. We have a quick turnaround to get ready for Chattanooga on Wednesday."

ON PLAYING SO MANY GUYS AND RESTING SOME STARTERS
"Well, we'll find out if that [resting the starters] worked on Wednesday. We were able to get some guys some rest, and that is important when you have three games in a week and four games in seven days, especially before the SoCon Tournament. I thought Jovan [Tucker] played hard, and Shannon [Grant] was a factor in the post. It was important to get guys like him and Jacksen [Greco] minutes just for experience."

ON SHANNON GRANT SCORING 10 POINTS
"What he gives us is a physical presence down low. I was happy that he played so well. He works hard, and he is a good basketball player, so it was nice to see him have success tonight."

ON THE UPCOMING GAME WITH CHATTANOOGA
"Chattanooga is a good basketball team. We let one kind of slip away when we played there [in January], so we must make sure to come out strong and with energy. [The Mocs] are a very physical team, so we have to be ready."

NOTABLES

Mercer swept the season series with The Citadel, winning two games by a combined 56 points.
The win was Mercer's 20^th in the series. The Orange & Black hold a 20-7 lead in the all-time series.
The Bears have won four straight games against The Bulldogs.
Greco broke into the starting lineup for the first time in his career. He played 11 minutes in the win.
Five different Bears hit a three-pointer with Ayers III, Cummings, Gary, Haase and Prendergast all connecting from downtown.
Haase tied his season-high with five makes from beyond the arc. He turned in a double-double for the first time since December with 17 points and 10 boards, both tops among all players.
All 17 of Haase's points came in the first half.
Cummings scored 11 points, finding his way into double figures for the fifth time in Mercer's last six games and ninth time in the past 11 contests.
Cummings now has 1,201 points. He passed Scott Bailey (1,297) and Jordan Strawberry (1,200) on the all-time scoring list in the victory to move into the sole possession of 18^th all-time in the program's scoring rankings.
Cummings is six points away from passing Pete Geter for 17^th.
Bafutto posted season-highs in numerous categories, including points (4) and rebounds (5). He delighted the home crowd with a put back dunk and hook shot in the second half.
The Bears' 46 points were their third-highest first half total this season.
Glisson III reached double figures for the second straight game and matched his season-high of 14 points.
Grant reached double figures for the first time in his young collegiate career.
The Bears grabbed 50 rebounds for the first time since a November triumph over in-state foe Georgia State.
Mercer improved to 8-4 inside Hawkins Arena.
The Bears are 11-2 when leading at halftime and a perfect 14-0 when leading with five minutes remaining in the game.
The Orange & Black remained undefeated in Monday games with three wins and no losses.

UP NEXT
Mercer will host Chattanooga on Wednesday at 7 p.m. for senior night. Before the game, Greg Gary and the coaching staff will honor redshirt senior Ross Cummings. Fans can catch all the action live on ESPN+ or tune in to Rick Cameron's radio call for the final time from Hawkins Arena this season via the Mercer Sports Network (100.9 The Creek and SportsMic).

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.