It's Tourney Time! Bears Head to SoCon Tournament

MACON, Ga. – March signals the end of the regular season and the start of conference tournaments across the country. The Mercer Bears are headed to Asheville, N.C. for the 101^st edition of Southern Conference Tournament, the nation's oldest college basketball tournament. Mercer, the No. 7 seed, will take on No. 10 Samford Friday night.

BEAR NECESSITIES
Date: Friday, March 5, 2021 | 8:00 p.m.
Matchup: No. 7 Mercer (15-9, 8-9 SoCon) vs. No. 10 Samford (6-12, 2-9 SoCon)
Location: Asheville, N.C. | Harrah's Cherokee Center
Live Stats: bit.ly/3sRj2KU
Live Video: ESPN+
Live Radio: 100.9 The Creek and SportsMic with Rick Cameron on the call
Twitter Updates: @MercerMBB

CUMMINGS, ALVAREZ NAMED ALL-SOCON
Mercer's Ross Cummings and Neftali Alvarez were both honored by the Southern Conference coaches and media as All-SoCon selections, the league office announced Tuesday afternoon. Cummings received second team honors from the head coaches and third team recognition from the SoCon Sports Media Association (SCSMA), while Alvarez received third team honors from both groups.

17TH AND CLIMBING
Ross Cummings became the 43rd player in Mercer men's basketball history to reach at least 1,000 career points when he made a layup with 5:45 to go against Wofford on Dec. 29. Below are the players he is trying to catch. Prior to Cummings, the last Bear to join the 1,000-point club was Ethan Stair. Stair joined the club last season on Jan. 28 at Samford. The all-time leading scorer is James Florence. Florence played for the Bears from 2006-10 and tallied 2,286 points in his career. Cummings' 1,215 points rank him 17th in program history.

Rk.       Name                               Pts.
12.       Stewart Reese                 1,348
13.       Woodrow Richardson 1,266
14.       Aleem Muhammad 1,261
15.       Richard Reid 1,246
16.       Bruce Gordy 1,227
17.       Ross Cummings 1.215

PASSING JAMES FLORENCE WITH MORE TO COME
The sharpshooting Cummings is nearing Mercer's all-time three-pointers made record, currently held by fan-favorite Langston Hall. Hall, who led the Bears to a stunning upset of No. 3 Duke in the NCAA Tournament in 2014, knocked down 256 treys. James Florence, the Bears' all-time leading scorer knocked down 242 shots from beyond the arc. On Feb. 24, which was also his Senior Night, Cummings knocked down four three-pointers to tie Florence for second all-time in program history. He needs just 14 treys to overtake Hall for the program record.

Rk.       Name                           3's
1          Langston Hall               256
2.         Ross Cummings          243
3.         James Florence           242
4.         E.J. Kusnyer 190
5.         Bud Thomas 161

CUMMINGS ONE OF 10 SENIOR CLASS Award FINALISTS
Mercer redshirt senior guard Ross Cummings was recently named a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award. The committee narrowed down the original list of 30 to 10 student-athletes. To be eligible for the honor, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. A fan vote makes up part of the voting for the award which will be announced at the 2021 NCAA Men's Final Four. Fans can vote at www.seniorclassaward.com/vote. Voting ends March 22.

A decorated student, Cummings is currently working towards his Masters in Higher Education Leadership and boasts a near perfect GPA. He has been named to the Southern Conference's Academic Honor Roll on two occasions.

CUMMINGS HIGH AMONG SOCON'S ACTIVE SCORING LEADERS
The redshirt senior guard is among the Southern Conference's active career scoring leaders.

Name                           School             Yr.        Points
Isaiah Miller                 UNCG             Sr.        1,883
Storm Murphy           Wofford          Sr.        1.294
David Jean-Baptiste  UTC                 Sr.        1,271
Matt Halvorsen WCU Sr.        1,246
Clay Mounce Furman Sr.        1,252
Ross Cummings Mercer R-Sr.    1,215

CUMMINGS IN THE NCAA STATS RANKINGS
The Dickson, Tenn., native is featured the NCAA statistical rankings for both the season and his career. See below for more info.

Category        Season/Career          Rank    Percent/Number
3 PT FGM        Season                        14         70 Makes
3PT FG% Season                       13 43.5%
3 PT FG/GM Season                        32        2.8
3 PT FGM        Career                         T-27     243 Makes
3 PT FG%        Career                         36        41.30%

DON'T LEAVE HIM OPEN! CUMMINGS AMONG SOCON'S BEST FROM DISTANCE
The sharpshooting Cummings is third among active SoCon players career in three-pointers made.

Name School             Yr.        3's
Matt Halvorsen             WCU                Sr.        296
Kaiden Rice Citadel             Sr.        271
Ross Cummings          Mercer             R-Sr.    243

SHARING IS CARING
The Bears is tied for sixth nationally in total assists.

Rank    Ast.      School
1. 493      Belmont
2.         476 Iowa
3.         449 Gonzaga
4.         440 Eastern Kentucky
5. 427     Toledo
T-6.      425 Mercer
T-6       425 Murray State
8. 415 Abilene Christian
9. 414 Oakland
10. 409 McNeese

POINTS FROM OVERSEAS
Mercer ranks ninth nationally in points from players overseas.

Rank    PPG.    School
1.         60.1 Cal Baptist
2.         42.1 Montana State
3.         41.2 Hawaii
4. 40.7 Grand Canyon
5.         36.4 Oregon
6.         35.8 Northeastern
7.         34.5 St. Mary's
8. 32.8 Utah
9.         32.4 Mercer
10. 32.1 Davidson

HOME RECORD IN 2020-21
With the win over Chattanooga on Wednesday night, the Bears closed out the home portion of the schedule with a 9-4 record. Since the 2016-17 season, Mercer is 46-26 overall in Hawkins.

HEADING TO THE NATION'S OLDEST TOURNAMENT? IT'S TRUE
The Southern Conference tournament is the longest running conference tournament in the entire country. The 2021 tournament marks the 101st edition. Only two conferences - the Atlantic Coast Conference (67 in 2021) and the Southeastern Conference (61 in 2021) have held at least 60 tournaments. The Ohio Valley Conference sits fourth with 56 completed tournaments. The MEAC rounds out the top-five with 48 tournaments with the 49th edition to be held this season.

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.

It's Tourney Time! Bears Head to SoCon Tournament

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Players Mentioned

Neftali Alvarez

Ross Cummings

Ethan Stair

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