Pre-Game Notes
FT. MYERS, Fla. - With just one game separating the top three teams in the Atlantic Sun Conference women’s basketball standings, Mercer University – which occupies that No. 3 slot – will have a golden opportunity to make a move with two games against league-leader Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) over the next 10 days. The Bears (10-8, 7-2 A-Sun) get their first crack at the Eagles (13-4, 8-1 A-Sun) on Saturday evening at Alico Arena.
The Eagles have the swagger of being the defending A-Sun champions in their corner, as well. This season, FGCU has won nine of its last 10 games and had an 8-game win streak snapped January 16 at East Tennessee State University.
FGCU is at or near the top of virtually every statistical category in the conference as a team. The Eagles lead the circuit in scoring defense (58.9 p.p.g.), margin of victory (+11.4 p.p.g.), three-point field goal percentage (.371), assists (17.8 a.p.g.) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.21), to name a few.
Senior forward Adrianne McNally heads a “veteran” FGCU roster that returned all five starters intact from its 2008-09 title team, yet still only has three seniors total. McNally’s 13.1 points per game leads three Eagles who have double-figure scoring averages. McNally also dishes out 4.0 assists per game and shoots a team-leading 54.2 percent from the field.
Senior Chelsea Lyles and junior Shannon Murphy average 11.6 and 11.2 p.p.g., respectively. Murphy averages 4.0 assists - along with nearly 2.2 steals - per game. Lyles, the only player listed a 6’0” on the Eagles’ roster, tops FGCU with 11 blocked shots.
Courtney Chihil, a sophomore, averages 6.1 rebounds per game on the year (7.9 r.p.g. in A-Sun contests) to go along with a 7.6 p.p.g. scoring average.
MU is coming off of a late-night win on Thursday in DeLand, Fla. After a 1:45 hour delay in the start time due to weather, Mercer sophomore forward
Lacy Ramon posted career-highs in both points and rebounds to lead her team to a 69-57 win over Stetson. Ramon had game-leading totals, as well, with 20 points and 15 rebounds in picking up her second double-double of the season.
In all, four Bears tallied in double digits at Stetson. Ramon was joined by
LaToya Jackson (13),
Courtney Ford (10) and
Lindsey Lowrie (10) in double figures. Lowrie accounted for the majority of the Bears’ 17 total bench points against SU.
Ford leads Mercer’s season scoring at 18.1 points per game and also tops the team in rebounds at 8.9 caroms per contest. For Ford – who ranks among the NCAA scoring leaders – the 10 points was her second-lowest offensive output of the season. But while her offensive game was somewhat stymied on Thursday, the senior added to her A-Sun leading steal total with four more “thefts.”
Jackson is the Bears’ only other player who averages in double-figure scoring for the season (13.4 p.p.g.). Ramon’s scoring was boosted to 7.6 p.p.g. after her big effort versus the Hatters, while she also averages 4.9 rebounds per contest.
Head Coach Janell Jones#' Mercer team has won three games in a row and five of its last six contests. The Bears will be looking to equal their longest win streak (a four-game skein between November 21 and December 5, 2009) of the season when they invade the Eagles’ home nest on Saturday.
Mercer lost both meetings to FGCU last season, falling at home in overtime (85-76) on January 15, 2009 and suffering a heartbreak in Ft. Myers, Fla., on February 14 (65-58). In the brief history between the schools (the first meetings were in 2007-08), the Bears have never won as the Eagles own a 4-0 edge in the series.