Friday, March 05, 2010

MACON, Ga. - Mercer used 50-percent shooting in the second half to knock off No. 2- seeded Jacksonville and the Bears head to the championship game of the 2010 General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Championships.
 
Read the Atlantic Sun Insider Column associated with this game here.

Daniel Emerson led Mercer’s scoring attack with 21 points. The senior also pulled down 15 rebounds. James Florence scored only eight points, but five were Mercer’s final five which sent the Bears to it first A-Sun Championship game since 1996. The senior guard finished 0-10 from the field before hitting a three at the top of the arc and two free throws. Jeff Smith scored 18 for Mercer and supplied the much needed offense because of Florence’s slow start.

Emerson and Jeff Smith combined to shoot 14-25 from the field, the rest of the Bears shot just 7-27 from the field. Both team struggled behind the arc, but Mercer went 3-of-7 beyond the paint in the second half.

Ben Smith paced Jacksonville with 19 points in what might be his final college game. Fellow senior Lehmon Colbert scored 11 and Aaron Hardy pitched in with 13. Jacksonville held a halftime advantage of 29-27, but could not hold on against Mercer’s hot shooting.

The Bears will take on the winner of No.5 ETSU tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. ETSU sits as the defending A-Sun tournament champion and looks to win back-to-back titles since Belmont won its third in a row in 2008. The game will be broadcast live on A-SunTV and ESPN2.  

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The Atlantic Sun Conference is an 11-member league committed to Building Winners for Life. The A-Sun stands for achievement with integrity in both the academic and athletic arenas, with a focus on the balance between the two for our student-athletes. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun boasts six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun includes a blend of the most prestigious and dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.

Game Notes: No. 6 Mercer 66, No. 2 Jacksonville 63

JACKSONVILLE
* Georgia natives Ben Smith and Lehmon Colbert scored 21 of the Dolphins 29 first-half points. They combined to shoot 8-15 while the rest of the team combined for 4-19 from the floor. In the second half, the pair combined to shoot 2-11 and score only 9 points points.
* With Jacksonville’s loss, Saturday’s final marks the first that will not feature either of the top two seeds since 2003 when third seeded Troy beat fifth seeded UCF, 80-59.

MERCER
* Daniel Emerson broke the conference’s oldest record, the league’s single-season rebound with 372. Centenary’s George Lett set the record in the conference’s first year, 1978-79, with 359.
* Emerson recorded his 21st double-double, the most in the conference in a single season in the last 14 seasons.
* With eight points, James Florence moved into the top 150 on the NCAA’s all-time scoring list
* In his last two games against Jacksonville, Florence has shot only 1-15 and scored a total of 10 points. In his first eight games against the Dolphins, he averaged 21.9 points with 5 20+ games.

A-SUN CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES
* Mercer advances to its sixth A-Sun title game, and first since 1996. The Bears have not claimed an A-Sun crown since 1985 when future A-Sun Commissioner Bill Bibb coached Sam Mitchell to a title in 1985.
* In A-Sun history, only one team, UCF, with seven, had made more title games than Mercer’s six.
* The Bears will play for the schools’ first Atlantic Sun Championship – in any sport, either gender, since the men’s soccer team won the 2001 championship.
* Mercer will face ETSU for the title. Mercer swept the season series after losing all eight prior meetings.
* Mercer will be the first host to play for the title since 2007 when ETSU hosted. The Buccaneers lost to Belmont. The last host to win a title was Georgia State in 2001.