Mercer stays undefeated at home with key 69-64 win over Furman

For so long, the Mercer Bears couldn’t get over the hump — a purple hump — that was right in front of them Wednesday night.

Furman turned a tie game into a double-digit lead in the first half and stayed on top by fending off Mercer threats.

That lead ran out for the first time midway through the second half, and the Bears found a groove in the final seven minutes to push past Furman 69-64 at Hawkins Arena.

Mercer avenged a 74-72 loss on New Year’s Eve.

“You could see two really good defensive teams that were struggling to score the ball a little bit,” Mercer head coach Ryan Ridder said. “Really similar to the game at their spot. They end up finding a way to win at their spot, we end up finding a way to win at our spot.”

Mercer moved to a perfect 12-0 in Hawkins Arena with the win, the only team in the Southern Conference without a home loss. The Bears are 16-10 overall and 8-5 in conference play after breaking a two-game losing streak.

Furman lost its third straight game — those defeats came by a total of 12 agonizing points — to fall to 16-10 and 7-6.

Mercer is in sole possession of third place in the conference, three games behind East Tennessee State and one behind Wofford.

The Bears visit seventh-place The Citadel on Saturday, then return home Feb. 19 for ninth-place Chattanooga and fifth-place Samford two days later.

Both teams had three players reach double figures, led by 25 points from Mercer’s Baraka Okojie, who was 12-of-14 at the free-throw line. Brady Shoulders was clutch, scoring 14 of his points in the second half to go with 13 rebounds. Zaire Williams added 13 points.

It was a rougher shooting night for Mercer despite the solid performances.

“We didn’t score the ball efficiently,” said Ridder, whose team shot 35.9% to 37.7% for Furman. “I thought we created pretty good shots. We had layups. We had very few poor possessions.”

Asa Thomas led the Paladins with 14 points, with Charles Johnston and Cooper Bowser adding 11 points each.

Mercer held freshman Alex Wilkins seven points, 38% of his average of 18.5 points. He had 20 in the first meeting.

“Take away Alex Wilkins,” Ridder said of the first priority in the game plan. “Limit him, and take away Cooper Bowser at the rim. I thought we did a pretty good job.”

The low post was no place for the meek, or undersized, with serious banging from Mercer’s Armani Mighty (6’-10”) and Furman’s Cooper Bowser (6’-11”) in particular, to go with another 6’-11”  Paladin, Charles Johnston, and assorted frontcourt players from both sides.

Mighty won the battle of the bigs with 14 rebounds and seven points. Bowser, who didn’t play in Furman’s 74-72 win over Mercer on Dec. 31, had eight points and six rebounds.

“There were some big boys going on out there,” Ridder said. “Big boys.”

Furman went from a 9-9 tie to a 21-11 lead early, as Mercer came up dry for five minutes. The teams exchanged shooting slumps all night, with Furman surrendering only five points in the final 4:23 for a 31-29 halftime lead. Mercer whiffed on three shots to end the half.

The lead grew to six points about four minutes into the second half, the teams then slugging it out on the defensive end.

The Bears finally started clicking a bit.

“We got all our energy from the defensive side tonight,” Ridder said. “That’s important, because that travels. You can’t control if the ball goes in the hoop or not. But you can control if you play defense or not.”

Okojie’s tough up-and-under bucket low gave Mercer a 52-51 lead with 6:32 left, and then Shoulders took a pass from Okojie on the block and drained a 3-pointer for a four-point lead that forced a Furman timeout with 6:06 left.

That lead evaporated in a minute. and Ridder’s blood pressure likely skyrocketed when there was no foul called amid a contact-heavy possession — and a jersey grab — with Mighty seeming to get somewhat hammered when his shot was blocked.

Ridder was all over the officials during a timeout that followed an alley-oop dunk on the play, and continued offering his thoughts anytime a ref was anywhere near him.

“They knew it was a marginal call,” Ridder said with a little smile. “They let me get my piece in, but it was a very well-officiated game.”

But Mercer trailed for only about 15 seconds, Williams’ left-handed scoop shot returning Mercer to the lead and Shoulders again following up 32 seconds later with another momentum-boosting 3-pointer.

That brought an amped Ridder out past halfcourt at Furman’s accompanying timeout to celebrate the Bears’ rally.

The refs were safe.

“Brady Shoulders was tremendous,” Ridder said. “As tough as they come.”

It was a three-point Mercer lead when Mighty hammered a block, a crowd-pleaser that was wasted when the Paladins’ survived an air ball from Thomas on the right side and then a miss from Thomas on the left side only to get Johnston’s putback with 24.1 seconds left.

All was well. Okojie — who had 22 in the first meeting — hit two free throws three seconds later, Furman fouling Shoulders after a miss and watching him seal it with two more freebies.

The Bears were a little better than normal from the line, hitting 85.7%, up from the 73.8% season mark. Furman was about six percentage points below its average.

“I loved our connectedness,” Ridder said. “There was no panic. I thought we were defensive driven tonight. I thought we were tough.”