Mercer offense falters in 60-49 loss to Furman

If you hold a team to 35.7% shooting for a half, about five percentage points below its average, you should be happy.

Unless you’re only shooting a hair better than half of your own average.

That was the hole Mercer dug for itself in the first half of Thursday’s Southern Conference battle with visiting Furman.

Not until late in the third quarter did Mercer locate the proper tools — and execution — to start digging out, but they couldn’t completely escape.

Mercer hit a stretch of Mercer basketball and got within a possession, but Furman had the answer with a nice — and familiar — run to finish off the Bears 60-49 in a battle of Southern Conference contenders at Hawkins Arena.

Furman improved its conference stock with its third road win of the year, the Paladins sticking in a tie for second at 4-1, 12-8 overall.

Mercer dropped to 12-7 and 2-2, and is in sole possession of fourth place, behind Chattanooga (4-0), Furman and Wofford (4-1). Mercer welcomes Wofford Saturday in a game moved to 11 a.m. because of potential weather issues.

A double-digit loss at home amid a rough shooting night was frustrating, but not unsurprising in a balanced conference.

“We’re 2-2 in the league,” Mercer head coach Michelle Clark-Heard said. “And we have another home game (Saturday). It’s definitely not a step back.

“The biggest thing is we always know it’s going to be a dogfight in this league. We’re still growing and learning.”

Stephanie Utomi had a double-double for Mercer with 12 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out late. Abigail Holtman had 12 points, and Nahawa Diarra snagged eight rebounds.

But that trio combined for an 8-for-29 shooting night that was on par for the Bears, who hit only 17 of 60 shots, good for 28.3%.

“We just didn’t put the ball in the hole,” she said. “We let the ball not going in dictate how we played, and that’s not who we are.”

That number was a step up after a first half of only 17.1%, and a staggering 1-for-20 second quarter, the orange rim favoring the purple Paladins, who were shooting at 35.7% at the break. Furman got rolls and bounces the home team couldn’t despite getting some decent looks.

“The ball just didn’t go in,” Clark-Heard said. “The first half, it just didn’t go in.”

Mercer held Clare Coyle, Furman’s leading scorer, to 10 points below her average in the first half and six below for the game. But guard Alyssa Ervin went off for 20 points, while Cantelle Stuart scored 14.

Furman out-rebounded Mercer by 10, yet had only one more second-chance point. The Paladins had six more fast-break points and seven more off turnovers.

The Paladins didn’t exactly light it up, either, connecting 33.9% of the time.

Furman took the lead for good on its first basket, a 3-pointer from Stuart for a 3-2 lead. The Bears couldn’t get much going, yet trailed only 24-18 at the halftime break despite coming up empty on seven straight trips during one stretch.

Mercer didn’t reach half of its average of 67 points until Rania Curry’s 17-footer in transition pulled the Bears within 42-34 at the 1:20 mark of the third quarter. That was part of a 9-0 run over the final 2:40 to get Mercer within 42-37 after three.

“You see with the second half, that third quarter, we played hard and had a great third quarter,” said Clark-Heard, whose team outscored Furman by one. “But we made a lot of mental mistakes when it got to the fourth quarter.”

The Bears were within two twice in the first 90 seconds of the fourth quarter, only for Furman to open up a double-digit lead with an 8-0 run.

Mercer hung in there, and cut a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit in half in 100 seconds. And as was the case in the second half when Mercer surged, that’s where it stopped.

Down 52-47, two straight turnovers — an offensive foul and forced pass — just after the media timeout with 3:08 left in the game gave Furman possessions. 

Furman got the offensive rebound after the second of two missed free throws. Stuart inbounded the ball almost underneath the goal with a second left on the shot clock. Ervin found an opening, and Stuart found her for the perfect push shot to beat the clock for a 55-47 lead.

The Bears were held to two points in the final 4:53, coming with 27 seconds left for their second-lowest total of the season.

Epitomizing the night along the way: Mercer’s defense forced a turnover in the backcourt only to give it back when the Bears – down 30-22 – when it couldn’t get the ball in.

Later, down only five with less than four minutes left, Mercer scrapped to get the ball only to give it back on the outlet. Furman turned it over on a shot-clock violation, but ate up valuable time in the process.

Nevertheless, Clark-Heard didn’t see anything in particular that left long-term concerns, nothing a few nice rolls can’t cure.

“To be able to dig yourself out of a hole, I think that’s the thing,” she said. “We’ve got to come back and hang our hat on defense, defense and rebounding. But it shows that we still got that fight in us.”