Bears Return Home Thursday To Take On Western Carolina

MACON – The Mercer women's basketball team will begin a regular season-ending two-game home stand on Thursday when the Bears lace up to take on Southern Conference rival Western Carolina in a pivotal midweek matchup inside Hawkins Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and tickets can be purchased by visiting MercerBears.com/Tickets.

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

ABOUT THE GAME
Date: Thursday, February 27 Time: 7 p.m. ET Location: Macon, Ga. I Hawkins Arena TV: ESPN+ Live Statistics: MercerStats.com Twitter Updates: @Mercer_WBB

ABOUT MERCER
The Bears (7-20, 2-10 SoCon) have dropped three-straight games that have been decided by points coming in the last nine seconds of regulation. The latest heartbreaker came on Saturday when Wofford hit a pair of free throws with 7.5 ticks left to eke out a 65-64 win in Spartanburg, S.C. That setback extended MU's skid out to five games, while also giving the Bears 10 losses in their last 11 outings. Offensively, Mercer has played its best basketball of the season over the last three contests … The Bears have tacked up 67.0 points per game across the stretch, while also combining to shoot 46.6 percent from the field (76-for-163), including a 16-for-36 (.444) clip from the perimeter … MU has also forced 17.0 turnovers an outing over the last three games, in addition to turning in 6.0 steals and 3.3 blocks an outing. Senior Nahawa Diarra has averaged 16.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.3 steals an outing over her last three starts, and has connected on multiple 3-point attempts in every game across that span as well … In the frontcourt, junior Ariana Bennett has connected on 64 percent (16-for-25) of her field goal attempts over that same three-game stretch, while also averaging 14.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists an outing … Junior Chelsy Bautista registered a season-best 13 points in Saturday's last-seconds setback at Wofford, going 4-for-4 from the field and 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. Mercer is 29-1 all-time in the series with Western Carolina, and will ride a 12-game series win streak into Thursday's contest in Macon … The lone win for the Catamounts in the series came via a 51-40 decision on Feb. 1, 2020 in Cullowhee … Mercer rallied all the way back from a 10-point deficit with seven minutes left in regulation to stun home-standing Western Carolina, 71-66, earlier this season in Cullowhee.

SCOUTING WESTERN CAROLINA
The Catamounts (12-15, 2-10 SoCon) have now dropped nine of their last 10 contests following Saturday's 57-53 loss at Southern Conference regular season champion UNC Greensboro. The Catamounts combined to shoot 63 percent from the field in the second and third quarters to lug a 48-43 lead into the final period, but the Spartans drained a trio of 3-pointers across the final 10 minutes, while also registering a 5-for-8 clip from the free throw line, to fuel the comeback. Graduate guard AC Carter leads the Southern Conference in scoring with 15.0 points per game, and has turned in double-digit scoring numbers 23 times this season, including a quartet of 20+-point performances … Sophomore Tyja Beans ranks fifth among SoCon leaders with 12.7 points an outing on 55.5 percent field goal shooting, and has scored 10 or more points in 16 of her last 18 starts … Senior Chelsea Wooten ranks fifth in the league with 48 made 3-pointers this season and is shooting close to 33 percent (32.9) from downtown. Western Carolina has committed more than 17 turnovers (17.3) per game over the last 10 games, including a season-high 27 in its home win over Furman on February 15 … Western Carolina has connected on a Southern Conference-best 44.3 percent of its field goal attempts this season, and paces the eight league teams in both free throw percentage (.760) and free throws made per game (13.6) … Defensively, the Catamounts rank seventh in field goal percentage defense (.409) and commit 18.4 fouls per game as well.

ON DECK
The Bears will put the kibosh on the regular season portion of their 2024-25 schedule on Saturday when they take on Southern Conference regular season champion UNC Greensboro (20-6, 11-1 SoCon) in the front half of a 2 p.m. women's and men's basketball doubleheader in Hawkins Arena. 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.

Bears Return Home Thursday To Take On Western Carolina

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Chelsy Bautista

Ariana Bennett

Nahawa Diarra

Footer

Mercer University Athletics