DULUTH, Ga. – Mercer University’s men’s basketball team utilized a strong effort from its big men as it scored a 65-59 win over ACC rival Georgia Tech at The Arena at Gwinnett Center. The win improved the Bears to 8-5 overall and snapped a nine-game winless streak against the Yellow Jackets (7-5) dating back to 1974.

The two teams came out and almost appeared mirror images of each other, relying on stifling defense and wanting to pound the ball inside to their respective bigs. From the Bears perspective, the contribution of 6-11 sophomore Monty Brown couldn’t have been bigger in the opening period.

Brown led all scorers in the opening salvo with eight points off the MU bench in just six minutes of play. He hit 2-of-3 from the field and was 4-of-6 from the free throw line. Brown would eventually finish the game as MU’s top scorer with 13 points on a 4-of-6 shooting night.

Mercer would parlay Brown’s – and the rest of the Bears’ – efforts into a 31-30 advantage at the intermission.

The tight ball game continued at the outset of the second period. The first 7:40 minutes of the stanza had no less than nine lead changes and a tie before Tech began to put some daylight between themselves and the feisty Bears. The Yellow Jackets built a lead of seven points, 49-42 after a layup by Glen Rice (19 points) with 8:45 to play and still maintained that cushion with seven minutes left to play.

But Mercer was not through yet by any stretch. A three-pointer by Justin Cecil was followed by an in-your-face slam dunk from Daniel Coursey to cut the Tech lead to two. A three-ball by Bud Thomas eventually knotted matters at 54-54 with 3:21 left. The Yellow Jackets committed turnovers on their next two possessions and MU converted both into layup baskets by Jakob Gollon and Coursey to lead by four, 58-54, with 1:36 left on the clock.

GT got to within a single point, 60-59, on a trey from Jason Morris. But Mercer’s Travis Smith went 6-of-6 shooting free throws down the stretch – along with one charity toss from Langston Hall – to keep MU’s points coming as Tech began fouling. That, coupled with so stellar defense, helped push the Bears to the big victory.

Besides Brown, three other Mercer players scored in double figures. Thomas had 12 points. Gollon and Coursey added 10 points apiece. Gollon shared game high assist honors (along with teammate Hall) with five “helps.”

Coursey had all three of the Bears’ blocked shots for the night. Thomas had seven rebounds for MU.

In all, the game featured 10 ties and 13 lead changes.

MU head coach Bob Hoffman’s buzz words to his team entering the game were simple: Mission Possible. With tough setbacks to both Seton Hall (in overtime) and at Georgia within the last five days, Hoffman wanted to remind his team that a win over Georgia Tech was within its reach.

“It certainly was ‘possible’,” said an emotional Hoffman after the victory and while watching his team celebrating with family, fans and friends who made the trek. “This is why I (coach); moments like this: to see those guys enjoy themselves because they worked hard. They deserved to win.”