Bears Drop Saturday Rematch At Samford

Saturday, February 8

Birmingham, Ala.

3 p.m.

Mercer University

7-16,2-6SoCon

Samford

8-16,3-5SoCon

Mercer

Samford

2/8/2025 7:38:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score

By: Todd Anderson, anderson_t02@mercer.edu

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Samford scored 21 points off of 14 Mercer turnovers and used a big second-quarter run to pull away for good as the Bulldogs avenged a January loss to the Bears in Macon with a 65-49 triumph on Saturday inside the Pete Hanna Center.

It was the sixth loss in the last seven outings for the Bears (7-16, 2-6 SoCon) who fell to 3-9 away from Macon this season with the setback as well. The triumph snapped an eight-game series skid for the Bulldogs (8-16, 3-5) who have now captured three of their last five outings.

THE BASICS

SCORE: Samford 65, Mercer 49
RECORDS: Mercer 7-16 (2-6 SoCon); Samford 8-16 (3-5 SoCon)
LOCATION: Birmingham, Ala. (Pete Hanna Center)

HOW IT HAPPENED

1ST QUARTER

The Bulldogs went 8-for-14 (.571) from the field in the opening quarter, including a trio of 3-pointers, on the way to taking a 20-15 advantage after 10 minutes of play. The Bears took a 9-3 lead following a pair of free throws from Chelsy Bautista midway through, but Samford reeled off 11-straight points over the next three minutes to take the lead for good.

2ND QUARTER

The Bears pulled to within one point, 20-19, just less than 90 seconds into the stanza on a trey from Nahawa Diarra, but a pair of Annie Ramil free throws on the other end of the court signaled a 16-2 run over the next seven minutes that eventually allowed the hosts to drag a 36-23 lead into the locker rooms.

3RD QUARTER

Samford retained its hot hand in the third period, shooting better than 41 percent from the field to inevitably push their lead out to 20 points, 55-35, heading to the final period. The Bears trimmed their deficit back to 14 points, 43-29, via a pullup jumper from Talia Harris at the 6:40 mark, but the Bulldogs tacked up 12 of the game's next 16 points to inflate their advantage.

4TH QUARTER

Mercer whittled its deficit all the way back to a dozen points, 59-47, with 4-1/2 minutes left to play, but Samford swung the momentum back in its favor after that. Mercer went scoreless over the game's final 2:11, and the Bulldogs capped the scoring on Emily Bowman's free throw with 42 seconds left.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

+ Junior Ariana Bennett scored eight of her team-high 13 points in the second half, while also finishing her afternoon with a team-best seven rebounds, two blocks and one steal.
+ Freshman Talia Harris netted 11 points on a 4-for-12 shooting clip, while also turning in one assist, one rebound and a steal.
+ Senior Ashlee Locke chipped in 10 points on a 4-for-7 shooting clip, while complementing her scoring number with six rebounds, two blocks and a pair of steals.

NOTABLES

+ The Bears finished with seven blocks on Saturday, their most in a game since posting nine swats in last month's loss at Chattanooga. It is the second-highest block total of the season for the Bears.
+ Mercer collected 10 offensive rebounds against the Bulldogs – the seventh time this season that the Orange & Block have turned in double-digit offensive boards.
+ Samford's win on Saturday snapped an eight-game series skid for the Bulldogs. It was just the fifth win in the last 25 matchups with the Bears.

UP NEXT

The Bears will open up a two-game home stand on Thursday when they lock horns with visiting Chattanooga (11-11, 6-3 SoCon) on Play4Kay/Pink Out Night in Hawkins Arena. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. and tickets can be purchased by visiting MercerBears.com/Tickets.

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BACK THE BEARS

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