Friday, March 04, 2011

MACON, Ga. – Top-seeded Belmont kept rolling along in the General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Men’s Basketball Championships, starving off a gutsy effort by No. 5 seed Mercer, 80-72, to advance to the A-Sun Finals. Since 2006, Belmont advanced to the A-Sun Championship Final four times and claimed championships from 2006-08.

The Bears (15-18) drew the curtain on a season which ended with great success after losing two senior starters to injury mid-campaign in 2010-11. The Bruins utilized its depth in building an 11-point halftime cushion. All eleven Belmont players who played in the game would score at least two points in the contest, with four players reaching double figures.

Mercer tried to make a move in the second half, getting the margin to three points after a pair of Brian Mills free throws with 3:07 left to play. But the Bears could get no closer as the Bruins seemed to have an answer for each MU uprising. Jordan Campbell came off the BU bench to tally a team-high 17 points, hitting six-of-eight from the field. Fellow reserve Kerron Johnson added 14 points, while starters Mick Hedgepeth and Ian Clark booked 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Mills closed out his Mercer career with his fifth double-double of the year, scoring a game-high totals in both points (21) and rebounds (10). Mills connected on 11-of-16 free throws, the second-most ever made by an MU player in an A-Sun tournament game. Bears’ reserve Jake Gollon scored a career-high 19 points as the only other MU player in double digits.

Belmont will await the winner of the No. 2 ETSU/No. 6 UNF game in Saturday’s championship game at 6 p.m. being aired by ESPN2.

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