Bears Fight Back But Fall 82-76 At Wofford

Saturday, February 25

Spartanburg, SC

2 PM

Mercer University

12-15,8-6SoCon

Wofford College

20-8,10-4SoCon

Mercer

Wofford

2/25/2023 5:35:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Mercer erased a 13-point fourth quarter deficit to tie it late

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Mercer women's basketball team erased a 13-point fourth quarter deficit to tie the game with two minutes left, but ultimately came up short in an 82-76 defeat at Wofford on Saturday in the final regular season game of the season.

Trailing 67-54 entering the fourth quarter, Mercer went on an 18-5 run to tie the game with just over two minutes to play.

Mercer shot 43.9 percent from the field and attempted a season-high 26 3-pointers making nine of them. Each team did a great job of protecting the ball as Mercer had just seven turnovers its fewest in a conference game this season.

Amoria Neal-Tysor followed up her 42-point performance at Wofford with a game-high 27 points to go with six rebounds and four assists.

Jaron Dougherty had her first double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Erin Houpt added 21 points going 9-for-17 (52.9%) from the field.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Brittany Reeves got Mercer's offense going early knocking down two jump shots to make it a 7-7 game. A 3-pointer from Houpt gave Mercer a 19-18 lead before Wofford closed out the quarter on a 6-0 run.

In the second quarter, trailing 28-26, Mercer went on a 7-0 run after a jump shot from Houpt to take its largest lead of the game at 35-30.

Mercer had its best defensive quarter in the second quarter, holding the Terriers to just 12 points while scoring 19 in the quarter to take a 38-36 lead into halftime.

Wofford responded from its poor shooting second quarter to have a much better third quarter offensively and seemingly take control of the game.

The Terriers shot 57.1 percent in the third quarter and made 4 3-pointers while the Bears went 0-for-6 from 3-point range in the quarter and Wofford took a 67-54 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Bears held Wofford without a fourth quarter point until just over five minutes to play. Still the Bears found themselves down 10 at 69-59.

Then, Mercer would go on a 12-3 run to tie the game at 72 with just over two minutes to play. The run was largely due to the Bears making their 3-point attempts, which included the first made 3-pointer of the season for Enjulina Gonzalez.

However, Wofford held of Mercer's comeback and clinched at least a share of the SoCon regular season title.

COACH GARDNER ON THIRD QUARTER
"Unfortunately, what got us in the hole was the third quarter and I felt like it was our rebounding. They've got some talented offensive players. We would get stops but yet we would not get the defensive rebound and gave them second chance points during that stretch."

COACH GARDNER ON TEAM'S EFFORT TO TIE GAME IN 4^TH QUARTER
"We were down 13… and fought back. Our players had the maturity and the fight to fight back and tie it back up. We had some opportunities to get ahead. As disappointed as I was in the third quarter, I'm as proud of them in the fourth quarter by tying it back up."

NOTABLES

Mercer will play in the 4 vs 5 game in the quarterfinals in the SoCon Tournament against UNCG.
Both teams relied on their starters for scoring as there were a combined 8 bench points between the two teams.
Mercer outrebounded Wofford 38-35, the only SoCon team Mercer outrebounded in both games this season.
Ashlee Locke had a career-high 10 rebounds.

UP NEXT:
Mercer's next game will be in the Southern Conference Tournament. The Bears will play in the 4 vs 5 game against UNCG. Tip off will be Thursday, March 2 at approximately 1:15 p.m.

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.