Game Notes
LOS ANGELES – The Mercer men’s basketball team begins its brief two-game swing through Los Angeles by visiting No. 12 UCLA for the first time in school history as the Bears face the Bruins in historic Pauley Pavilion Saturday night. Tip-off is slated for 10:30 p.m. (EST).
The contest marks the second of three road contests in a six-day span as the Bears looking to snap a two-game winless streak, while the host Bruins have won three in a row and five of their last six and boast an unblemished 5-0 record at Pauley Pavilion this season. In its last outing, Mercer battled Oklahoma State before falling, 104-74, while UCLA defeated the Bears’ next opponent - Loyola Marymount, 75-44, in its last outing.
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Bears, who have played well at times on opponent’s hardwood this season – with wins past Alabama and Auburn - the Bruins only losses have come to Michigan in the 2k Classic at Madison Square Garden and they suffered a narrow, 68-64, setback on the road at No. 6 Texas. UCLA entered the season looking for its fourth consecutive trip to the Final Four (they fell to Florida, 73-57, in the 2006 NCAA Championship game, to the Gators again, 76-66, in the 2007 semifinals and then to eventual runner-up Memphis, 78-63, in last year's semifinals).
UCLA set a school record with 35 wins last season en route to their third consecutive Final Four appearance and climbed as high as No. 2 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll before falling to the Tigers and finishing 35-4 The Bruins also posted an impressive 16-2 record at home last season, with its lone non-conference home loss to eighth-ranked Texas. UCLA has posted 31 consecutive victories past unranked non-conference opponents in Pauley Pavilion.
ESPN.com ranked UCLA’s rookie class as tops in the nation with two incoming McDonald's All-Americans - with freshman Jrue Holliday, the 2008 Gatorade National Player of the Year, in head coach Ben Howland's starting lineup in each of the Bruins' first nine games. UCLA was an overwhelming preseason favorite to win its fourth consecutive Pac-10 title, garnering 379 total points to 325 for second-place Arizona State, while USC, Arizona and Washington rounded out the top five in voting by the media.
Howland has penciled in the same starting quintet for each of the first nine contests - In addition to Holliday the Bruins are starting three seniors and a junior. One of UCLA's strengths is in the backcourt where the true freshman works with senior Darren Collison, a third-team All-American last season, who ranks in the school's top-10 in five statistical categories, and averages 14.6 points per game. He was named MVP of the 2K Sports Classic Los Angeles Regional and to the All-Tournament team in New York after helping lead UCLA to a 3-1 record in the event. Collison is shooting an impressive 53.8 percent from beyond the arc and is 25-of-26 from the charity stripe on the season.
Holliday adds 10.8 points a contest, while senior Josh Shipp posts 11.2 points a game.
Alfred Aboya, a 6-foot-9 senior, nets 8.1 points a game and collects a team-best 5.6 rebounds a game, while junior James Keefe, the final member of the starting quintet, adds 4.8 points and 5.1 boards a contest.
Mercer has fond memories of Los Angeles, as the Bears stunned No. 18 USC in their season-opener last season and are looking to garner their third win overall past a Pac-10 school and the first past a school other than USC and Stanford.
Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman has two wins over Pac-10 Conference teams, with his Oklahoma Baptist team picking up an 85-69 win over Oregon State during the 1993-94 season, and his Texas Pan Am squad topped Washington State, 55-52, on Feb. 28, 2000.
For the Bears over the last three contests, James Florence has averaged a team-best 21 points and five rebounds per contest while hitting 16-of-35 (45.7%) from the field. Junior Daniel Emerson continues to be a force for Mercer, averaging 16.5 points and a team-high nine rebounds, while Calvin Henry has averaged nine points and seven boards over the last three contests.
Saturday’s game will be aired live on 105.5-FM ESPN The Fan, and via the internet at www.mercerbears.com.