Box Score
DAYTON, Ohio – With the Mercer men’s basketball struggling from the field, Dayton outpaced Mercer, 71-53, in second-round action of the Chicago Invitational Tuesday night at the University of Dayton Arena.
With the Bears’ outside shooting colder than the weather outside UD Arena, Dayton grabbed a 7-0 lead in the first three minutes of the contest and James Florence, the A-Sun’s leading scorer, watching most of the first half from the sidelines after pulling a hip-flexor, the Bears suffered their lowest first-half shooting percentage (29.2) since shooting 21.9 percent in the opening half of a 75-73 loss to Stetson last season.
As frigid as the Bears were, the Flyers hit seven of their first 11 shots from the field in the first seven minutes and built 20-8 lead inside the 13-minute mark on back-to-back 3s and went on to lead by as many as 24 in the first stanza.
Trailing 48-26 coming out of intermission, Mercer would not surrender, cutting the deficit to 12 points, at 61-49, with 6:05 showing on the clock, on a steal and layin by Michael Ellis that caused anxiety among the Flyer faithful, but UD’s Charles Little answered with a traditional three-point play to hold off the Bears and Dayton went to claim its 15th consecutive home win versus non-conference opponents.
“[Dayton] played harder than we did in the first half,” Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman said. “They came out hard and we never recovered. It was a very physical game. We cannot be a finesse team – we have to work hard for everything we get.”
Dayton improved to 4-0 – all at home - and stayed unbeaten in Chicago Invitational Challenge games with its win past Bethune-Cookman last Sunday, while Mercer (3-2) dropped its second consecutive contest and is 1-1 in Chicago Invitational Challenge contests with its win at Auburn last week.
UD Arena was not a place for moral victories, but Mercer could take some small consolation in scoring 53 points against the Flyers. Dayton entered the game holding opponents to 43 points per game and had not allowed an opponent to reach the 50-point plateau through its three home games this season – the Bears scored their 50th point on Daniel Emerson’s free throw with 5:26 left in the contest.
Mercer shot 30.2 percent on the night, while the Flyers cooled off a bit to finish at 42.6 percent on the night.
UD’s Chris Wright, a 6-foot-8 forward, led all scorers with 16 points and collected a game-high 11 rebounds. Charles Little chipped in 11 points for the Flyers.
Daniel Emerson scored a team-high 13 points for Mercer, while Calvin Henry flirted with a double-double, notching 12 points and collecting eight rebounds. Sophomore guard Mark Hall netted 10 points and dished out a team-high four assists. Junior guard Michael Ellis added nine points and seven boards off the bench.
“I was very happy with Mark Hall’s play tonight,” Hoffman added. “He came in and played hard.”
The Bears head to Chicago for the final two rounds of the Chicago Invitational Challenge to face Texas Southern in third round action at 1 p.m. (eastern) on Friday, then will square off against either Chicago State or Bethune-Cookman at Noon on Saturday with a win over Texas Southern, but will play at 2:30 p.m. with a setback to TSU. All games will take place at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill.
Friday afternoon’s game is scheduled to be aired live on ESPN 105.5 The Fan and webcast on www.mercerbears.com. Saturday afternoon’s contest will be live on www.mercerbears.com and aired at 7 p.m. on ESPN 105.5 The Fan.