October 23, 2011

Men's Basketball Displays its 2011-12 Squad in "Orange & White" Intersquad Game

 

Orange & White box score (PDF)

 

MACON, Ga. – Depending on who you talked to after Sunday's annual "Orange and White" intersquad scrimmage, there were any number of good things accomplished by the Bears as the team looks to the beginning of the 2011-12 season opener in a couple of weeks. The MU Black Team held on for a 46-44 win over the White Team.

Among the positives gleaned from Sunday's tussle was redshirt freshman guard Darious Moten – a walk-on – pouring in a game-high 17 points. Moten connected on 5-of-14 from the floor and was 5-for-5 from the free throw stripe for the White Team.

The Bears' trio of sophomore "bigs" – Monty Brown, Paul Larsen and Daniel Coursey – all had stellar afternoons in their own right. The 6-11 Brown grabbed eight rebounds and had three blocks for the White squad, while Larsen and Coursey, also 6-11, teamed up for the Black unit.

Larsen hit 4-of-7 from the field and had 10 points as the Black team's co-leader in scoring. Coursey pulled down a game-leading 10 rebounds, scored six points and had a pair of blocked shots.

"They are going to continue to improve," MU Head Coach Bob Hoffman said of the trio. "They are still young and improving every day. They really did some good things."

Sophomore forward Bud Thomas shared White Team scoring honors with Larsen at 10 points. Thomas was 3-of-7 from the field and 2-for-5 from beyond the arc, including sinking a buzzer-beater from just inside the mid-court line as the first half expired to fire up a crowd upwards of 300 fans. Thomas also had a game-leading four steals.

Other notables include senior Justin Cecil and redshirt freshman Jibri Bryan both booking nine points. Bryan, a guard, also hauled in six rebounds and two steals. Junior Chris Smith and sophomore Langston Hall each tallied seven points, with Smith grabbing four caroms, as well.

The typically-tenacious Mercer defense was in mid-season form as the Black Team amassed 11 steals and the White Team had 10 thefts. The teams had a combined eight blocked shots.

While MU displayed the had-to-be-expected early season mistakes that accompany a split-squad game  – 17 turnovers by the Black Team and 14 by the White Team – Hoffman knows his young Bears have plenty to build on as they unify for an exhibition versus Georgia College and State on November 3 and, ultimately, its Homecoming Game season opener against Emory on Nov. 12.

"(Mistakes) are to be expected at this time of year," said Hoffman. "But we were not trying to 'win' a ball game today. This was about learning about our team and what we need to do to improve. It was about getting a game situation under our belt; with referees, the clock, timeouts, the band and fans…everything.

"These guys were really pulling for each other all day. It was kind of hard to see because of the squad being split up, but the team did a great job of supporting each other."

MU season tickets remain on sale for the 2011-12 campaign. For more information, please call (478) 301-5470 or go to MercerBears.com and click on the ticket link.