Bears Shake Off Early Yips, Power Past Charleston Southern

Wednesday, November 11

Macon, Ga.

7 p.m.

Mercer University

3-1,0-0SoCon

Charleston Southern

0-3,0-0Big South

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Charleston So.	20	11	9	5	45
Mercer	13	17	14	10	54

11/11/2026 9:39:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Ben Kinealy, kinealy_ben@mercer.edu

MACON – Charleston Southern benefited from eight first-quarter turnovers on the way to building an early double-digit lead, but Mercer forced 23 turnovers over the final three periods and used a strong rebounding presence to shake off the visiting Bucs, 54-45, on Wednesday evening in Hawkins Arena.

The result kept the Bears (3-1) unbeaten in three home games this season, while also giving the Orange & Black its first 3-1 start since the 2017-18 campaign. Charleston Southern (0-3) stayed winless on the young campaign, while also dropping its third-straight contest in the series with MU.

THE BASICS

SCORE: Mercer 54, Charleston Southern 45
RECORDS: Mercer 3-1 (0-0 SoCon); Charleston Southern 0-3 (0-0 Big South)
LOCATION: Macon, Ga. (Hawkins Arena)

HOW IT HAPPENED

1ST QUARTER

Ada Anamekwe's old-fashioned 3-point play just more than four minutes into the game handed the Bears an early 5-4 advantage, but Charleston Southern followed with a 16-4 run that gave them a 20-10 lead five minutes later. Micah O'Dell's triple with 32 ticks remaining cut the visitors' advantage back to 20-13 through 10 minutes of action.

2ND QUARTER

The Bears chipped away at their deficit in the early portion of the second quarter, but the Bucs reclaimed a 10-point advantage, 29-19, following a free throw from Selenay Tanik at the 4:30 mark. Mercer tacked up nine-straight points after that to put CSU on its heels, but the Bucs were still able to lug a 31-30 advantage into the intermission.

3RD QUARTER

Mercer got a pair of free throws from Ada Anamekwe, as well as a 3-pointer from Micah O'Dell nearly two minutes later, to claim the first five points of the second half that surged MU ahead for good. The Bears pushed their lead out to six points, 41-35, on a second-chance jumper from O'Dell at the 3:45 mark, and eventually toted a 44-40 lead into the final stanza.

4TH QUARTER

Charleston Southern mustered just two field goals (9 attempts) in the final quarter of play, and Mercer took advantage of the scoring lull. The hosts scored seven of the first nine points in the last stanza to build a nine-point cushion, 51-42, with 6-1/2 minutes left to play, and then hit cruise control the rest of the way out.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

+ Senior Abigail Holtman turned in a team-best 15 points on 5-for-12 shooting, including a trio of 3-pointers, while also adding six rebounds and a career-best six steals.
+ 5^th Year newcomer Ada Anamekwe used an 8-for-9 showing at the free throw line to fuel a 14-point outing that also included six rebounds, three assists and a trio of steals.
+ Senior Micah O'Dell chipped in 11 points on a 4-for-9 shooting clip, including a 3-for-4 performance from the perimeter. She complemented her offensive numbers with three rebounds and a steal.

NOTABLES

+ Mercer has captured three of its first four outings for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign and has won its first three home games for the second time (2024) in the last three seasons.
+ The Bears shot a season-best 88.2 percent (15-for-17) from the free throw line, and have now canned at least 80 percent of their free throw attempts in two consecutive games. Wednesday's game also marked the best free throw shooting exhibition by the Orange & Black since a 16-for-17 clip from the charity stripe against Wofford last season in Macon.
+ MU registered a season-best 15 steals on Wednesday evening against the Bucs – the most for the squad since tallying 16 in an 80-63 win at Furman in February. It is the second time this season that the Bears have tallied at least a dozen steals.

UP NEXT

Mercer will open up a two-game road trip on Sunday when it heads to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to take on Southeastern Conference foe Alabama (4-0) in Coleman Coliseum. Tipoff is slated for 3 p.m. Tickets for the outing can be purchased through the Alabama athletics ticketing portal.

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BACK THE BEARS

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