East Tennessee State Holds Off Late Push By Mercer

Wednesday, January 31

Macon, Ga.

7 p.m.

Mercer University

9-13,2-7SoCon

East Tennessee State

11-11,3-6SoCon

ETSU

Mercer

East Tennessee State Holds Off Late Push By Mercer

1/31/2024 9:47:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Makenzie Jones, jones_m@mercer.edu

MACON – Visiting East Tennessee State offset 17 turnovers with a big rebounding night, and the Buccaneers held off a late rally by the Mercer men's basketball team to steal a 54-49 road victory over the Bears on Wednesday evening in Hawkins Arena.

The setback marked the third-straight home loss for the Bears (9-13, 2-7 SoCon) who fell to 5-5 in Macon this season with the result as well. It was the second win in the last three outings for ETSU (11-11, 3-6) who has now registered consecutive series wins for the first time since the 2020-21 campaign.

THE BASICS

SCORE: East Tennessee State 54, Mercer 49
RECORDS: Mercer 9-13 (2-7 SoCon); East Tennessee State 11-11 (3-6 SoCon)
LOCATION: Macon, Ga. (Hawkins Arena)

HOW IT HAPPENED

1ST HALF

East Tennessee State turned the ball over eight times in the opening half, but shot 42 percent from the field, including an 8-for-16 tally on layups alone, to lug a 26-20 advantage into the break. Amanze Ngumezi's second-chance layup with 12:12 on the clock pulled Mercer to within three points, 9-6, but the Bucs tacked up seven-straight points in the next 86 seconds to pad their lead out to double digits, 16-6. The Bears climbed to within two points, 21-19, on a driving layup from Jalen Cobb with 2:40 left before the break, but the visitors scored five of the final six points of the period.

2ND HALF

Mercer connected on 10 of its 21 field goal attempts (.476) in the latter stanza, and threatened to turn the table on a handful of occasions, but East Tennessee State used a 19-8 rebounding margin in the final period to hold the hosts at bay. The Bucs led by a dozen points, 48-36, with 8:52 to play, but a free throw from Jah Quinones on the other end of the court sparked MU on a 9-0 run that eventually made it a one-possession game 3-1/2 minutes later. The hosts, however, connected on just one of their final six attempts from the field to ice the outcome.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

+ Freshman David Thomas came off of the bench to tally a team-best 13 points on 6-of-13 shooting, while also adding one block and a steal.
+ Senior Jalen Cobb chipped in nine points, three rebounds two assists and a pair of steals in 31 minutes of action.
+ Freshman Jake Davis registered eight points, including a 2-for-4 showing from downtown, and added a team-best six rebounds and two steals.

NOTABLES

+ Mercer held an opponent to sub-40 percent shooting for the eighth time this season. East Tennessee State canned just 39.3 percent of their field goal attempts in Wednesday's contest.
+ The squads combined for just 16 total free throw attempts in Wednesday's contest, and combined to commit just 25 fouls. Three of Mercer's 12 fouls in the contest were logged in the last minute of regulation.
+ The Bears have now turned in four or more blocks nine times in 2023-24 after registering four swats against ETSU.

UP NEXT

Mercer will continue a three-game home stand on Saturday when it suits up to welcome Southern Conference rival VMI (4-18, 1-8 SoCon) to Hawkins Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. MU defeated the Keydets, 86-64, earlier this season in Lexington, Va.

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BACK THE BEARS

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