Opening in Asheville with a Bang

Thursday, March 3

Asheville, N.C.

11 a.m.

Mercer University

21-6,13-1SoCon

Western Carolina

7-23,0-14SoCon

Western Caro.

Mercer

Photo by: Todd Drexler/SESPORTSMEDIA.com

3/3/2022 2:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Neal-Tysor’s 34 helps lead to Mercer’s win in the quarterfinal

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Opening the postseason with the team that gave them two of their toughest times, Mercer did not let that impede the moment in Asheville on their way to a 85-46 quarterfinal win in the Ingles SoCon Basketball Tournament over Western Carolina. With the win, the Bears will move on to Friday's semifinal to face a team to still be determined.

Q1 7:14 » @bballmori10 out here doing her thing! MER 8, WCU 2#WhateverItTakes pic.twitter.com/oQMB9LCHnO
— Mercer Women's Basketball (@Mercer_WBB) March 3, 2022

Amoria Neal-Tysor, a North Carolina native and last year's Most Outstanding Player, led the Mercer (21-6) offense as she matched her career-high of 34 on the way to the 39-point win over the Catamounts (7-23) on Thursday. Mercer scored eight of the first 10 and led for nearly 39 of the contest's 40 minutes. In her SoCon Tournament debut, Erin Houpt tallied 14 points with three rebounds and dished an assist. Jaron Dougherty sank 10 points and corralled seven boards – five on the defensive end – to help the cause. Allie Thayne collected seven boards herself to help keep the Catamounts out of the contest.

Mercer held the Catamounts to 33.3% (18-for-54) from the field for the entire game, as well as 29.2% (7-24) in the second half. Offensively, the Bears shot nearly 50% (48.4 – 31-for-64) as they set a new high for points scored in a game.

go 'head and flex on 'em, Amoria. #SoConHoops🏀 x @Mercer_WBB pic.twitter.com/1HNxHAEuC9
— SoCon Championships (@SoConChamps) March 3, 2022

How it Happened
While Western Carolina won the tip and scored the first points of the game, Mercer responded with an 8-0 run as they jumped to a 25-12 lead going into the second. Neal-Tysor tacked 13 of her 34 in the opening frame, which included a pair from distance to start off her career day, as Thayne pulled down a trio of boards. Not letting up from a hot start, Neal-Tysor sank 15 in the second to help firmly push Mercer forward to playing on Friday as the Bears took a 46-25 advantage to the intermission.

Houpt – the league's top freshman and three-point leader – starred in the third, tallying eight of her 14 with six of those points coming from beyond the arc. In the closing quarter, the Bears saw impressive production from its bench as they tallied 13 points to seal the result.

Quotables - Head Coach Susie Gardner
Opening statement
"We knew coming in that Western, despite their record, has really good players. Kiley does an exceptional job with them, and we knew they'd come out fighting. One of our goals was to rebound, we're not one of the better rebounding teams in the conference, but one of our goals was to out rebound them, which we did. Another goal was to try and get up and down and run the floor, score quickly, because he plays different defenses and mixes it up. We weren't really sure what he was going to run, but our goal was to get up, and I think we scored 36 points in the first half which was exceptional. Amoria shot the ball really well, so that helped a little bit as well."

On having an experienced roster and how much that played into the hot start to the game and the tourney in general
"Some of the grad students we've only had for a year, so most of them haven't been to Asheville before, but I think where we have experience is in Amoria (Neal-Tysor), Jaron (Dougherty), and Shannon Titus, who have actually been to Asheville and won a few championships. Their leadership, whether it's in the locker room, on the bus, in the team room, in the hotel room, whatever they're talking about when I'm not around, is what propels us. I think at the same time, we got some really good young players. We've got great leadership, but those young players follow that great leadership, and they've really morphed into a very important part of our program as well. We've kind of mish-mashed, put it all together, but I'm really pleased with not only our effort, our focus, you know one of our words this year, we had a little up and down where we were not consistent, and Western Carolina is a perfect example. We beat them by six one game and by seven the other game, so I'm nervous as heck for two days coming into this game, because I know they've got talented players, and (Western Carolina coach) Kiley (Hill) like I said does a great job, so it was important for not only me but for my players to get off to a quick start."

On how well Mercer shot and whether it was a function of shot selection or execution
"I think a combination of both. I think when Amoria gets hot, she's pretty hot. She shot the ball really well here last year in the tournament; you'd have to ask her this question, but is it this gym? These rims? Whatever the case may be. But, we didn't force anything, we didn't have to get down to many 10, nine, eight situations, but we were hot, and shooting is contagious. When one player is shooting the ball really well, it gives the other players confidence too, I think."

Notables
• Mercer's 39-point win was the biggest in the postseason in the Susie Gardner era
• Both instances of Neal-Tysor's 34-point performances came in the SoCon Tournament
• Mercer is now 4-0 all-time against Western Carolina in the SoCon Tournament
• The Bears trailed for just 15 seconds in the win

Up Next
Mercer will meet Samford in the semifinal round with a trip to the Championship game on the line. Tipoff is slated for 11 a.m.

Follow the Bears:
For complete coverage of Mercer 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.