This past week, the women's basketball team lost their fourth and fifth games in a row and brought their season record to 7-20 on the season and 2-10 in the Southern Conference. The Bears lost to Furman University (14-14, 4-8 SoCon), 72-70, in Greenville, S.C. on Thursday, and fell to Wofford College, 65-64, on Saturday in Spartanburg, S.C. With just two games left in the regular season, the Bears have now dropped to last place in the SoCon.
Early on against Furman, the Bears outplayed the Paladins in field goal percentage, 46 versus the home team's 41, as well as three-point percentage as Mercer converted 54 percent of their shots from deep while the Paladins scored less than a third of theirs. The scoring leaders for the game were Talia Harris '28 and Nahawa Diarra ‘25. The true freshman guard Harris tied her career-high with 20 points and added five rebounds and seven assists. Junior guard Diarra scored 14 points with 5 rebounds and 7 assists. Ariana Bennett '26 and Kayla Smith '26 combined for 22 points and seven boards.
It is the second loss to the Paladins this season, but this was a far closer game than the 10-point loss they suffered in January to Furman. This game stung, though, not because it was the fourth consecutive loss, but because Mercer nearly pulled off a comeback win after trailing for much of the first three quarters. A three-pointer from Smith with 8:35 left to go in the game gave the Bears their first lead of the game. Their lead grew to as much as seven points in the final quarter, but the team was ultimately unable to hold on as Furman scored the go-ahead bucket with nine seconds left on the board.
A few days later, Mercer played on the road against Wofford (16-9, 8-4 SoCon) for the Terriers' senior night game. Once again, the Bears let a late lead slip away after being up by 10 points at halftime and by six to enter the fourth quarter.
Mercer shot better from the field and from deep, and was 11-for-15 from the free throw line. The visiting Bears also out-rebounded Wofford, 38-36. Bennett, Diarra and Chelsy Bautista ‘26 were the scoring leaders for this game. Bennett had nine rebounds with two assists while scoring 15 points. Diarra scored 18 points with seven rebounds and two assists. Bautista scored 13 points with two rebounds, and did not miss a single shot all game, shooting 4-for-4 from the field and 5-for-5 from the charity stripe.
The next game for the Bears will be this upcoming Thursday at home against Western Carolina University. In the first meeting between the two teams this season, Mercer won, 71-66. Both teams are 2-10 in the conference, though the Catamounts are one spot higher than the Bears due to their overall record 12-15 season record.
