Mercer trounces Citadel 101-63 for first SoCon win

The Mercer Bears clobbered The Citadel Bulldogs in their first home SoCon game of the year, riding a red-hot team performance from beyond the arc to a 101-63 victory Wednesday night at Hawkins Arena.

The Bears went 15-for-28 on 3-pointers, good for a 53.6% clip and the most threes made in a game since Mercer knocked down 15 in an overtime win against Chattanooga last year. The 15 long-range shots in Wednesday’s win were the most in a regulation contest since the Bears made 17 shots from downtown against VMI in 2022.

“Obviously offensively we were pretty good tonight. We executed at a high level and we created great shots, but you still gotta make the shots,” Mercer head coach Ryan Ridder said after the game. “I told the guys, you go 58% from the field, 54% from three and 90% from the line — obviously if you play like that, you’re gonna have a chance to win a lot of games going forward.”

It was a momentum-shifting win for Mercer, which lost its first two SoCon games by tight margins on the road last week. Ridder remained confident despite those losses, noting that the Bears trusted their process regardless of the result. His faith in the squad certainly paid off against the Bulldogs.

“We all feel like we’re in the right headspace, but there’s still something about putting a win on the board. You know, you lose a couple on the road, it gets a little tough. Maybe you forget what a great non-conference you had and how good this team could be,” Ridder said. “For our guys, I think it was important to go out and play well and find a way to win.”

Quinten Perkins II had a solid night shooting, tying with big Armani Mighty for the team and game highs with 18 points, including four 3-pointers. Baraka Okojie followed with 14.

Mercer’s defense and rebounding also proved potent. The Bears limited the Bulldogs to 44% shooting from the field and snagged 31 total rebounds, 12 of them offensive.

“We had good defense and rebounding, I thought we turned them over at a high rate. Their percentages were a little higher than I thought they were, but I really felt like our defensive effort was good enough even without the offensive output,” Ridder said.

Mercer even got a chance to play some of its deeper bench players with a few minutes left, boosting the bench energy. Jaydon Cole was the player who knocked down the Bears’ 15th 3-pointer of the night.

“It’s always great when you can extend the bench. I told our team today we have 16 players on the roster, and at this particular point, every single one of them is bought in,” Ridder said. “It doesn’t mean it’s great individually for them every day, but every day they’re bought in. It’s great for them to put a couple points on the board.”

Kyle Cuffe set the tone early with a pair of 3-pointers inside the first minute, foreshadowing Mercer’s fortune from beyond the arc that would be crucial to their first half lead. Okojie quickly followed up with another make from downtown, and the Bears sailed to an 11-4 lead early.

The Bulldogs had lots of trouble stopping Mercer for the entire half but kept things close with some scrappy offensive possessions. The Bears never let The Citadel get truly fluent ball movement, so different Bulldogs players would drive hard in man matchups and find ways to the basket to stay in it. 

The Citadel used those possessions and a few stops to trim the lead to 17-13 with about 12 minutes left before halftime, but that was as close as they would get — Mercer’s 3-point prowess was inevitable.

Perkins got hot, draining a pair of 3-pointers while also finishing some Bears possessions from under the basket to build up Mercer’s lead again. Along with some contributions from Zaire Williams and Bendji Pierre, Perkins helped the Bears take a 54-31 lead into the half.

Perkins led the floor with 13 points at the break, followed by Okojie’s 11-point effort. The Bears went 9-of-16 from beyond the arc in the opening half. Mercer also had seven offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes, surpassing their game total of 5 against ETSU in their most recent game.

The second half was more of the same — if anything, Mercer looked even more crisp on defense and only started giving up more points to The Citadel after the lead ballooned to around 40 points. 

The Bears are now 9-7 overall and 1-2 in the Southern Conference. They’re set to play Wofford at 2 p.m. Saturday in another key conference tilt. The Terriers are 11-5 overall and 3-0 in SoCon play after defeating UNCG Wednesday night.

“I haven’t spent a lot of time on them yet, obviously was locked into The Citadel, but they’re really good. They’re 3-0 (in conference play) and they can really score the ball at a high rate,” Ridder said. “I look forward to starting to break them down tonight and having a plan before Saturday.”