Thursday, December 22, 2011

DULUTH, Ga. – Mercer University’s men’s basketball team utilized a strong effort from its big men as it scored a 65-59 win over ACC rival Georgia Tech at The Arena at Gwinnett Center. The win improved the Bears to 8-5 overall and snapped a nine-game winless streak against the Yellow Jackets dating back to 1974.

The two teams came out and almost appeared mirror images of each other, relying on stifling defense and wanting to pound the ball inside to their respective bigs. From the Bears perspective, the contribution of 6-11 sophomore Monty Brown couldn’t have been bigger in the opening period.

Brown led all scorers in the opening salvo with eight points off the MU bench in just six minutes of play. He hit 2-of-3 from the field and was 4-of-6 from the free throw line. Brown would eventually finish the game as MU’s top scorer with 13 points.

Mercer would parlay Brown’s – and the rest of the Bears’ – efforts into a 31-30 advantage at the intermission.

Besides Brown, three other Mercer players scored in double figures. Bud Thomas had 12 points. Jakob Gollon and Daniel Coursey added 10 points apiece. Gollon shared game high assist honors (along with teammate Langston Hall) with five “helps.”

Coursey had all three of the Bears’ blocked shots for the night. Thomas had seven rebounds for MU.