January 13, 2011

Bears Looking to Tip Hatters in Friday Battle in Florida

DeLAND, Fla. – Mercer University’s men’s basketball team will head south to Florida for a two-game Atlantic Sun Conference set, beginning with Friday’s contest at Stetson University (7 p.m.). The game will be televised live regionally on Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast.

Head coach Bob Hoffman and his team will look to the “Sunshine State” to thaw the run of bad luck which has surrounded the Bears in recent games, despite some outstanding efforts. Last Monday’s loss at Campbell fell right into that category, as MU battled back from a 15-point deficit with 10:05 left in regulation, tying up the game with one-tenth of a second left to play, only to lose in overtime.

Senior Brandon Moore cued the efforts versus Campbell by tallying a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds. Moore raised his scoring average to 12.3 points per game and rebounds to 6.3 boards per game in the process.  Moore is also shooting 49.2 percent on the year from the field, tops among the MU starters.

Brian Mills still tops the Bears at 14.4 points per game and registered his ninth-consecutive double-digit scoring game versus the Camels on Monday. His free throws sent the game into OT on Monday.

 

Mills also leads the club in rebounds with 6.4 caroms per contest.

Fellow senior Jeff Smith poured in 19 points – all in the second half – in sparking Mercer’s comeback bid at Campbell. Smith is second on the team in scoring at 14.1 points per game and leads with 3.5 assists per game.

MU freshman Langston Hall ranks second in the A-Sun in three-point field goal percentage at 45.6% and is 10th in three-point field goals made per game at 1.94 per game.

SCOUTING STETSON:

Stetson is 5-11 overall and 3-3 in the A-Sun. The Hatters are led by the tandem of Ridge Graham and Corey Walden, averaging 14.0 and 11.5 points per game, respectively. Graham also tops the team in rebounds at 6.6 boards per game.

In its last game, Stetson’s Walden had 13 points and Aaron Graham added 12 in a 62-42 loss at East Tennessee State on Monday. The Hatters shot 31 percent (15-48) for the game.

Mercer and Stetson split a pair of meetings last season, with each team winning on its home floor. SU took a 76-69 win in DeLand on January 2, 2010, while MU bounced back for a 91-57 victory on January 30 in Macon. In that last meeting at MU, Mercer’s Jeff Smith led the Bears with 25 points and Brian Mills grabbed 14 rebounds.

GAME NOTES:

*This is the 118th meeting between Stetson and Mercer. The Hatters lead the overall series versus the Bears by a 68-49 margin.

*Stetson and Mercer have a long history, with the first meeting between the teams occurring in 1920. Since that time, the Hatters and Bears have battled 117 times to make each other the most-contested series for either school. The next-closest foe for the Bears has been Samford University at 103 meetings.

* Stetson’s all-time winningest coach - Glenn Wilkes - who guided the Hatters for 36 seasons from 1957-93 (552-435) - cut his basketball teeth as a member of Mercer University’s teams from 1946-50. His 1,738 career points ranks fifth on the Bears’ all-time list and his 24.2 p.p.g. as a senior in 1949-50 is still the third-best season scoring average ever assembled by a Mercer player. 

*The Stetson-Mercer match-up will showcase five of the A-Sun Conference’s top-20 scorers. Mercer’s Brian Mills (14.4 ppg) is eighth, Jeff Smith (14.1 ppg) ninth and Brandon Moore (12.3 ppg) 14th. Stetson’s Ridge Graham (14.0 ppg) is 10th and Corey Walden (11.5 ppg) ranks 18th.