Bears Take On Chattanooga In Thursday’s SoCon Quarterfinals

Thursday, March 6

Asheville, N.C.

1:15 p.m.

Mercer University

Chattanooga

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Bears Take On Chattanooga In Thursday’s SoCon Quarterfinals

3/5/2025 10:35:00 PM | Women's Basketball

SoCon Tournament Headquarters

By: Todd Anderson, anderson_t02@mercer.edu

MACON – The Mercer women's basketball team will begin its run in the postseason on Thursday afternoon when the seventh-seeded Bears lock horns with second-seeded Chattanooga in the quarterfinals round of the 2025 Southern Conference Tournament at the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C.

Fans unable to make the trip to Macon can still follow the action for free via a live statistics link provided by the league office. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+, and is also scheduled to hit the airwaves on the Sportsmic App with veteran broadcaster Rick Cameron handling the play-by-play duties. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by visiting MercerBears.com/Tickets.

ABOUT THE GAME
Date: Saturday, March 1 Time: 2 p.m. ET Location: Macon, Ga. I Hawkins Arena TV: ESPN+ Live Statistics: MercerStats.com Listen Live: Mercer Sports Network – Sportsmic Twitter Updates: @Mercer_WBB

ABOUT MERCER
Mercer (8-21) slammed the door on the regular season portion of its 2024-25 schedule on Saturday with a 76-37 setback to SoCon regular season champion UNC Greensboro in Hawkins Arena. The Spartans scored 20 points off of 17 Mercer turnovers and used a big second quarter to pull away for good. Senior Ashlee Locke is the only current Mercer student-athlete with playing experience in the Southern Conference Tournament ... Locke has scored 13 points in five games played at the SoCon Tournament, and tallied a tournament career-best seven points in an opening-round loss to UNC Greensboro as a sophomore in 2022-23 … Senior Nahawa Diarra has averaged 11.4 points per game on 38.7 percent shooting (53-of-137) over her last 11 starts, while also putting up 4.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.5 steals across that span. Mercer is 19-6 all-time in the Southern Conference Tournament, including four championship runs (2017-18, 2018-19, 2020-21 and 2021-22) … The Bears are 9-1 in tournament-opening games, with their lone setback coming via a 63-59 overtime loss to UNC Greensboro in the 2022-23 tournament … MU has also made six appearances (10 years) in the SoCon Tournament championship game … Mercer opened last year's tournament with a 67-52 win over East Tennessee State before falling 66-55 to eventual champion Chattanooga in the semifinals. Chattanooga leads the all-time series with Mercer, 25-11, and will ride a seven-game series win streak into Thursday's matchup, including wins in both regular season matchups this season … The Orange & Black is 1-3 against the Mocs in the SoCon Tournament, including a 63-55 win over UTC in the quarterfinals of the 2019-20 event … UTC topped the Bears in the championship game of both the 2015-16 and 2016-17 tournaments.

SCOUTING UNC GREENSBORO
The Mocs (14-13) have captured four of their last six outings, including a 69-61 home win over Wofford on Saturday afternoon in McKenzie Arena. Chattanooga took a 28-24 lead into the break, then connected on 11 of their 15 (.733) shot attempts in the third period to pull away for good. The Mocs led by as many as 13 points, 51-38, in that stanza before holding off a fourth-quarter surge by the Terriers. Sophomore Caia Elisaldez was the lone Chattanooga player to earn a spot on the All-Southern Conference squad, and for good reason. The 5-5 guard led the Mocs in both scoring (14.2 points/game) and assists (4.7 assists/game), while also averaging 2.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals an outing. Iceland product Sigrun Olafsdottir earned her way on to the SoCon's All-Defensive Team after registering 4.4 defensive rebounds and 2.4 steals per game. Chattanooga is 64-21 over the last 41 years in Southern Conference Tournament play and has captured 20 SoCon Tournament championships, including each of the last two titles … The Mocs are 30-11 in tournament openers, but have not dropped their initial game at the SoCon Tournament since a 58-40 setback to Furman in the 2021 quarterfinals round.

ON DECK
The winner of the Mercer/Chattanooga matchup will advance to Friday's semifinals to take on the winner of the matchup between third-seeded East Tennessee State and sixth-seeded Furman. That semifinal matchup is scheduled to tip off at 1:15 p.m. on Friday.

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.