Bears Trek To Wofford For Road Finale

MACON – The Mercer women's basketball team will snap the lid on the road portion of its 2024-25 regular season schedule on Saturday when the Bears trek to Spartanburg, S.C., to battle Southern Conference rival Wofford at the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Fans unable to make the trip to the Palmetto State can still follow the action for free via a live statistics link provided by the Wofford athletics department. The game will also be streamed live on ESPN+.

ABOUT THE GAME
Date: Saturday, February 22 Time: 6 p.m. ET Location: Spartanburg, S.C. I Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium TV: ESPN+ Live Statistics: SIdearm Stats Twitter Updates: @Mercer_WBB

ABOUT MERCER
Mercer (7-19, 2-9 SoCon) fell to 2-3 in one-possession games this season with a heartbreaking 72-70 loss at Furman on Thursday evening. The Bears bridged the third and fourth quarters with a 17-3 run to grab a seven-point lead with 6-1/2 minutes left in regulation, but Furman closed the game with a 16-7 swing, including a go-ahead layup from Jada Session with 9.5 seconds left. Junior Ariana Bennett has posted double-digit scoring numbers in seven of her last eight starts, including 11 in Thursday's loss at Furman, and has shot 66.7 percent (10-for-15) from the field across Mercer's last two outings … Freshman Talia Harris matched a season-high with 20 points in the setback to the Paladins, and has now tallied 10 or more points in nine outings in 2024-25 … Senior Ashlee Locke is averaging 3.0 blocks an outing over her last five starts, including four swats against both Western Carolina and Chattanooga … Locke has also turned in 12.0 points per game across that five-game stretch on the strength of 57.7 percent (26-for-45) shooting. Mercer has scored 67 or more points just five times this season, but have accomplished that scoring feat three times in their last five outings … MU shot 53.2 percent from the field in last weekend's home loss to East Tennessee State – its best shooting performance since canning 58.8 percent of its field goal attempts in the season opener with UNC Asheville back in November … The Bears pace the 8-team Southern Conference with 3.3 blocks per game, and have combined to register 28 stuffs (4.7/game) over their last six contests. Mercer leads the all-time series with the Terriers, 21-6, but has dropped four of the last five matchups with Wofford, including a 61-51 decision in Macon last month … The Bears have come away empty on their last two trips to Spartanburg, and will be looking for their first road win in the series since a 74-57 decision during the 2021-22 campaign.

SCOUTING WOFFORD
The Terriers (15-9, 7-4 SoCon) have now dropped four of their last five outings after Thursday evening's 62-54 home loss to Samford. Wofford scored 28 points off of 24 Samford turnovers, but the Bulldogs forced 26 turnovers of their own and went 17-for-22 from the free throw line to key the final outcome. The loss came despite a triple-double from sophomore Evangelia Paulk who finished her night with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 10 steals. Evangelia Paulk ranks fourth among Southern Conference scorers with 12.8 points per game, but has put up 16.1 points an outing against league squads this season … Paulk also leads the SoCon in rebounds (8.5) and steals (3.5) per game as well … Both Paulk (35) and freshman Molly Masingale (34) have tallied 34 or more 3-pointers in 2024-25, while also hitting on at least one-third of their attempts from the perimeter. Wofford has limited opponents to a Southern Conference-low 36.4 percent shooting clip (21^st NCAA) this season, and have held five opponents to 35 points or less … The Terriers also pace the league in five other statistical categories, including 3-point attempts per game (24.5) … Wofford has shown their might in the rebounding column as well, tallying a SoCon-best 26.8 defensive boards per game, as well as 13.3 offensive rebounds per game (2^nd SoCon).

ON DECK
Mercer will close our their regular season schedule with a pair of home games next week. The Bears will battle Western Carolina in Hawkins Arena on Thursday and will take on Southern Conference-leading UNC Greensboro on Saturday. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by visiting MercerBears.com/Tickets.

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

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Players Mentioned

Ariana Bennett

Talia Harris

Ashlee Locke

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