December 6, 2011

Bears Travel to Former Conference Foe Samford on Wednesday.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – After opening Atlantic Sun Conference play last weekend, the Mercer University men’s basketball team will delve back into its non-league slate with a game at Samford University on Wednesday evening. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. Central/8 p.m. Eastern.

The Bears (5-3) will face the Southern Conference representative Bulldogs (1-5) for the first time since the 2002-03 season.

Mercer has a trio of players averaging in double digit scoring heading into the game at Birmingham. Sophomore point guard Langston Hall is averaging 12.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. The Stone Mountain, Ga., native also averages a team-leading 3.8 assists per game.

Senior Justin Cecil – who led the squad in scoring with 22 points in Saturday’s win at Lipscomb – checks in at 11.1 points and 2.9 boards per game. The trio is rounded out by redshirt sophomore Jakob Gollon at 10.1 p.p.g., along with his team-leading 5.9 rebounds per contest.

Sophomore post player Daniel Coursey has amassed 17 blocks in his team’s first eight games.

THE SERIES:

Wednesday’s game is the 104th meeting between the teams, which makes the series versus Samford the second-most contested opponent in Mercer school history (behind only Stetson with 119 prior meetings).Mercer holds a 57-46 series lead between the schools.

Mercer and Samford first met in 1902-03 (a 34-11 win by the Bulldogs). The last meeting of the series took place during the 2002-03 season, a 74-68 Mercer win on Jan. 23, 2003).

Playing in Birmingham, Samford has a 30-22 advantage in the series.

SCOUTING SAMFORD:

The Bulldogs have struggled at home thus far in 2011-12 with an 0-4 mark. On the season, Samford’s lone win was at Texas-Arlington (71-69) on November 26.

SU head coach Jimmy Tillette has accounted for more than one-fifth of the program’s victories (219) in his 14-plus seasons at the helm.

The Bulldogs will present the MU squad with a similar problem that it was seen from other foes in 2011-12: that of a balanced offensive attack. Samford has no players averaging in double figures, but has no less than eight individuals scoring between 4.2 and 9.8 points per game. Jeffrey Merritt and Will Cook lead the team at 9.8 and 9.5 p.p.g., respectively. Merritt also tops the team in rebounds (6.7 r.p.g.), with Cook close behind (5.3 r.p.g.).

In their last game, the Bulldogs lost at home to Texas-San Antonio, 74-52, on Monday evening. Tyler Hood was 6-of-11 from the field in leading Samford’s scoring with 15 points. Hood also pulled down a team-leading seven rebounds.

Jeffrey Merritt kicked in nine points, followed by eight from Will Cook. Merritt and Cook each hauled in five boards, as well.

GAME NOTES:

- The series versus Samford dates back to the 1902-03 season, which would make the Bulldogs one of the first-ever foes in MU basketball history.

- Both Mercer and Samford were charter member of the Atlantic Sun Conference (formerly the Trans America Athletic Conference) in 1978-79. The two teams were conference mates for a total of 24 seasons, until Samford left the league in 2003. MU is the lone original member remaining in the A-Sun Conference.

- Samford won a pair of A-Sun tournament championships - in back-to-back seasons - in 1999 and 2000. On both occasions, the Bulldogs topped Central Florida in the title tilt.

- MU’s loss at Belmont (12/3/11) was the first time this season that the Bears had out-shot an opponent from the field and still lost the contest.

- In all three of Mercer’s losses in 2011-12, the Bears have shot less free throws than their opponents.