Mercer Falls to Samford in Home Finale

Thursday, February 25

Macon, Ga.

7 P.M.

Mercer University

15-6,9-3SoCon

Samford

14-8,11-2SoCon

Samford

Mercer

Photo by: Jhalen Wingate

2/25/2021 10:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Amoria Neal-Tysor matched her career high with six 3-pointers

By: Stephen Waldman

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer women's basketball team dropped a hard-fought 74-65 decision in its final game in Hawkins Arena on Thursday evening.

Junior Amoria Neal-Tysor scored a team-high 22 points off the bench while making 6-of-10 attempts from long range. Redshirt senior Jada Lewis added 15 points and six rebounds to go along with her game-high seven assists, while senior Shannon Titus chimed in with 14 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals.

As a team, the Bears shot 36.9 percent (24-of-65) from the field while going 47.6 percent (10-of-21) from beyond-the-arc.

The two teams were even in rebounding at 36 apiece, while Mercer collected 16 offensive boards. Samford did most of its damage down low as Annie Ramil and Natalie Armstrong combined for 41 points on 17-of-26 shooting.

How It Happened
The two teams jockeyed for position throughout the majority of the first half, including a first quarter that saw three ties and two lead changes. Samford had built a five-point cushion with 7:38 remaining before halftime, but a pair of 3-pointers by Neal-Tysor shifted control back to the Bears. Both Mercer and Samford traded blows until an 8-2 run by the home team, fueled by Titus and Lewis, put the Black and Orange ahead by five. Following a score by Samford, Mercer headed into the break with a three-point advantage, 28-25.

Both teams had their best offensive period coming out of the break as Mercer went 7-of-14 (50.0 pct.) from the floor and 4-of-6 (66.7 pct.) from long range, while Samford was 12-of-17 (.70.6 pct.) from the field and 4-of-5 (80.0 pct.) on 3-pointers. The momentum shifted towards the Bulldogs as a buzzer-beating trey from Raven Omar fell through the hoop to turn their one-point lead into a four-point difference heading into the final quarter, 53-49.

The Bears gave everything they had to fight back into the game, but it was not enough as Samford held them off and came away with a 74-65 win.

Quotables – Head coach Susie Gardner
On opening statement…
"Samford is a good team. They don't really have any weaknesses. It was a back-and-forth game, and I felt like it was a huge momentum swing when they hit the 3-pointer at the buzzer at the end of the third quarter. One play does not lose the game, but we'd certainly like to have that one back.

"I thought Shannon [Titus] did a great job on Andrea [Cournoyer]. She's a great player, but we're asking Shannon to do everything: we want her to play defense on the other team's best player, we want her to rebound, we want her to score. And when a team is playing zone on you, you need to have people who can hit shots from the outside. Luckily, Amoria [Neal-Tysor] was hitting shots tonight, but we've got to have better outside shooters."

On Samford's press…
"They do a full-court press and try to slow you down. By the time you get your offense set, there's about 20 seconds left on the shot clock. They've done it all year. They've got their system and they do a good job with it."

On Amoria's three-point shooting…
"We needed Amoria to be hot tonight. We really don't have a team full of 3-point shooters. Jada has shown that she can hit threes at times, but she was running the point tonight. When we need to hit outside shots, we need Amoria to be hot, and thankfully she was. Amoria kept us in the game."

Player of the Game
Junior Amoria Neal-Tysor was shooting the lights out of Hawkins Arena as she finished with 22 points off the bench thanks to a 6-of-10 performance from beyond-the-arc. The Sanford, N.C., native matched her career high in 3-pointers made while adding five rebounds which was one off her personal best on the season.

Notables
» Mercer saw its four-game winning streak snapped.
» The Bears wrapped up the 2020-21 season with an 8-4 record on their home court.
» Mercer dropped its first Thursday game of the season.
» It was also just the second time in 11 games that Mercer lost a night game (6 p.m. start or later).
» The Bears connected on 10 3-pointers for the first time since Jan. 6, 2018, at Furman when they knocked down 12 treys.
» At least one Mercer player has scored 20 or more points in 19 of the team's 21 games this season, including a streak of 14 consecutive games dating back to Dec. 18.
» Neal-Tysor matched her career high with six 3-pointers made.
» Neal-Tysor posted her seventh 20-point game of the season and 12th of her career.
» Titus moved into 18th on Mercer's all-time scoring list with 1,141 career points, passing Christy Cogley.
» Titus suited up for her 100th career game with the Bears.
» Titus recorded her 140th career block.
» Lewis reached a pair of career milestones in tonight's game as she scored her 1,300th point and recorded her 150th career steal.
» Lewis dished out seven assists for the second straight game.
» Lewis scored in double figures for the 70th time in her career.
» Sierra Votaw played in her 80th collegiate game.
» Jaron Dougherty recorded the 80th steal of her career.
» Allie Thayne earned her 50th collegiate start tonight.

Up Next
Mercer closes out its regular season with a 12 p.m. contest at ETSU on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

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.