Bears Hit Gas In Second Half, Race Past North Greenville

MACON – Mercer forced 23 turnovers and utilized 35 points from its bench as the Bears offset a sluggish first half with a 54.8 percent shooting effort in the second stanza en route to a 69-41 victory over visiting North Greenville in its season opener on Monday evening in Hawkins Arena.

The Bears (1-0) stayed perfect in season openers under head coach Michelle Clark-Heard with the result, while also raking in the fourth win in their last five outings on their home court dating back to last season's 67-58 triumph over UNC Greensboro. The result did not affect the win-loss column for Conference Carolinas (NCAA Division II) contender North Greenville who tagged Monday's outing as a preseason exhibition.

THE BASICS

SCORE: Mercer 69, North Greenville 41
RECORDS: Mercer 1-0 (0-0 SoCon); North Greenville 0-0 (0-0 Conf Carolinas)
LOCATION: Macon, Ga. (Hawkins Arena)

HOW IT HAPPENED

1ST QUARTER

Points came at a premium for both sides in the opening period as the Bears and Trailblazer combined for 4-of-24 shooting and 14 combined points. Mercer raced out to a 9-2 lead following a Jah'Naesia Spiers free throw at the 4:05 mark, but were unable to scratch the scoreboard for the remainder of the quarter. North Greenville snapped a scoring drought of more than six minutes with a 3-pointer from Emery Lindsey with 2:18 remaining.

2ND QUARTER

Mercer's offense found its rhythm in the second quarter as the Bears went 7-for-16 from the floor and gained some separation heading into the locker rooms. North Greenville pulled to within a point on Emery Lindsey's triple just more than two minutes into the period, but the Bears responded with a 13-3 run over the next five minutes to run its lead out to double digits. A layup from Jah'Naesia Spiers with 88 seconds left gave the hosts a 26-15 edge heading into intermission.

3RD QUARTER

The Bears scored the first 11 points of the third quarter to take complete control of the evening, but North Greenville put together a mid-period surge to keep the hosts honest. Micah O'Dell's fastbreak layup at the 7:59 mark pushed MU's advantage out to 22 points, 37-15, but North Greenville had whittled that lead down to just a dozen points, 40-28, just more than four minutes later. Avani Tella's layup with 26 ticks remaining, however, gave Mercer a 48-30 lead heading to the fourth.

4TH QUARTER

Mercer finished out the night strong, shooting 53.3 percent from the field and more than doubling up the Trailblazers in the rebounding column across the last 10 minutes of play. Mercer pushed its lead back to 20 points midway through, and led by as many as 30 points, 69-39, after Avani Tella's 3-pointer with 1:03 left to play.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

+ Freshman Maliyah Lofton scored a game-best 24 points off the bench on 9-for-12 shooting in her Mercer debut, while also adding three assists and a pair of steals. The Ohio native did most of her damage in the last 20 minutes, tacking up 15 points on 6-for-8 shooting, including a pair of triples.
+ Senior Abigail Holtman notched her first career double-double with a dozen points and a career-high 13 rebounds. She went 5-for-10 from the field, and 11 of her boards were of the defensive variety.

NOTABLES

+ Mercer moved to 3-0 in season openers under head coach Michelle Clark-Heard with Monday's victory, and improved to 6-4 in such contests over the last decade.
+ The Bears scored 42 points in the paint (60.8% of total) in Monday win's over the Trailblazers, while also turning in 11 offensive rebounds.

UP NEXT

Mercer will close out its season-opening two-game home stand on Thursday when it bunkers down to take on in-state nemesis Georgia Southern in Hawkins Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by visiting MercerBears.com/Tickets.

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BACK THE BEARS

Fans can help support the Mercer athletics department by making a gift to the Mercer Athletic Foundation. To find out more information about the Mercer Athletic Foundation, email maf@mercer.edu.

Players Mentioned

Abigail Holtman

Maliyah Lofton

Micah O'Dell

Jah’Naesia Spiers

Avani Tella

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