Second Half Surge Carries Mercer To 70-59 Win At Samford

Saturday, February 18

Birmingham, AL

3 PM

Mercer University

11-14,7-5SoCon

Samford University

13-14,7-5SoCon

Mercer

Samford

Second Half Surge Carries Mercer To 70-59 Win At Samford

2/18/2023 6:19:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Bears outscored Samford 42-27 in second half

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Mercer women's basketball team used a big second half to turn a halftime deficit into an 70-59 win over Samford Saturday afternoon.

Trailing by four at halftime, Mercer outscored Samford 42-27 in the second half. Mercer shot 56 percent from the field in the first half after shooting just 35 percent in the first half.

Freshman Enjulina Gonzalez led all scorers in the game with 25 points on 12-for-20 (60%) shooting. She had 12 of Mercer's 28 points in the first half to keep the Bears within four at halftime.

Amoria Neal-Tysor had 21 points, with 19 coming in the second half. In the second half Neal-Tysor was an efficient 8-for-12 from the field.

Erin Houpt had 13 points, including 10-for-10 from the free throw line and she knocked down important free throws over the final minute of the game to seal the win for the Bears.

HOW IT HAPPENED
A back and forth low scoring first quarter saw Samford take a 12-9 lead after the first 10 minutes. The Bears had their worst shooting quarter of the game in the first quarter at just 23.5 percent from the floor but defensively forced six Samford turnovers in the quarter.

Gonzalez had six of Mercer's first eight points in the second quarter before Houpt knocked down a 3-pointer to give Mercer a 20-18 lead.

A layup by freshman Maria Serracanta made it 25-24 Samford with just over five minutes to play in the second quarter. The Bears would go nearly four minutes without a point before a jump shot from Jaron Dougherty made it 31-26 Samford.

The Bears got off to a great start in the third quarter. Neal-Tysor made her first two shots within the opening minute of the quarter to give Mercer a 33-32 lead.

Gonzalez would score the next nine for Mercer to push Mercer's lead to 42-39 mid-way through the third quarter. Like the first quarter, Mercer forced six Samford turnovers in the quarter and held the Bulldogs to 5-for-14 (35.7%) shooting in the quarter.

Samford took a 49-48 lead with just over seven minutes to play in the fourth quarter. It would be Samford's last lead of the game.

A Neal-Tysor four-point play followed next time down the floor by a jump shot pushed Mercer's lead to 62-53 and capped off a period in which she scored 10 straight points for the Bears.

Houpt went 8-for-8 from the free throw line over the final 75 seconds to seal the win for the Bears.

COACH GARDNER ON HALFTIME AND SECOND HALF
"I tried to just keep it calm and upbeat. We needed to come out strong. I felt like Enjulina played an incredible first half offensively and kept us in the game, and then Amoria found her stride in the second half."

"Something that most people might not notice is how well defensively Ashlee Locke played. Especially towards the end of the game when they were trying to get 3-pointers off she did a great job helping our guards. It was a full team effort that could have gone in either direction. I was proud of our finish and of course proud of how Houpt made her free throws at the end."

COACH GARDNER ON AMORIA'S SECOND HALF
"I said, 'Look you have been here for five years. You know what you can do. You're fine. Just go be yourself.' I just tried to calm her down and remind her what a dynamic player she is. And then maybe she just needed to see that first shot go in too."

NOTABLES

With the win, Mercer took both games from Samford this season, winning earlier this season in Macon 70-63.
The Bears were 15-for-16 (93.8%) from the free throw line, its best percentage since going 8-for-8 against Anderson.
The win is Mercer's second this season when trailing at halftime (2-10 overall when trailing at half).
Mercer forced 18 Samford turnovers. The second-most Samford has had in a conference game this season.

UP NEXT:
Mercer will travel to play Furman, Thursday Feb. 23. Tip off is at 7 p.m. ET.

FOLLOW THE BEARS
For complete coverage of Mercer Basketball, please follow the Bears on social media at @Mercer_WBB (Twitter), /MercerWBB (Facebook) and @Mercer_wbb (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.