Friday, November 20, 2009

MACON, GA – For the second straight year, Mercer will play an Atlantic Coast Conference team for Homecoming when it welcomes Florida State to the University Center tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. The Bears hosted Georgia Tech last year. Mercer is 3-1 with wins against Bucknell, Bryant and Fisk. Their lone loss came to Big East foe, Providence last week at the World Vision Invitational. The Seminoles come to Macon 2-0 with a pair of double-digit wins over Atlantic Sun teams, Jacksonville and Stetson. “This is a great opportunity for our team, program and Mercer to have another ACC opponent for Homecoming,” Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman said. “We are very thankful Florida State agreed to come and play us in the University Center.” FSU has plenty of height and are led in the frontcourt by 7-1 sophomore center Solomon Alabi (12.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg). The Naismith Award candidate is joined by sophomore Xavier Gibson (6-11), and sophomore forward Chris Singleton (6-9). Along with Alabi, the Seminoles have three more players averaging double figures that include Deividas Dulkys (12.0), Fyan Reid (12.0) and Gibson (11.5). Mercer is led by its senior trio of James Florence, Daniel Emerson and E.J. Kunsyer. Florence, named the season’s first A-Sun Player of the Week, leads the Bears in scoring with 20.8 per game. He is currently the second all-time leading scorer in Mercer history and needs only 167 points to pass Sam Mitchell.