Men's basketball finished its season on Saturday, booking a spot in the opening round of the Southern Conference tournament after being led to a 13-18 overall record in Head Coach Ryan Ridder's first season with the Bears. Mercer will face Western Carolina University on March 7, in Asheville, N.C.
In the penultimate game of the season, the Bears lost a close 59-58 match to East Tennessee State University, which was also the team's last road game of the regular season. The team finished the season at home with a senior day matchup with WCU, which the Bears won, 81-69. Against the Catamounts, Ahmad Robinson ‘25 scored his 1,000th point at the Division I level and Alex Holt ‘25 had a career-high of six blocks, and added 12 points and eight rebounds.
The seniors that were celebrated were Robinson, Holt, Cam Bryant, Chip Johnson and Laurynas Vaistaras. All seniors scored in the team effort that defeated the team they will face off again in the tournament. Vaistaras scored a season-high 11 points in just his third start of the season, dished four assists and grabbed six rebounds.
At a March 3 press conference, Ridder said that although not all games have gone the Bears' way this season, many have come down to the last possession, which gives him hope that the team will "play with hair on fire" and be a "tough out" for its SoCon foes. The team's seniors and juniors have been in such tournaments before, he said, and he is excited to play the Catamounts for the second time in two weeks.
Women's basketball faced off against WCU and University of North Carolina-Greensboro this past week to close out the regular season with one win and a loss. The Bears beat WCU, 51-49, on Thursday and lost to UNCG, 76-37, in their senior night game on Saturday. The team finished the regular season with a record of 8-21 overall and 3-11 in SoCon play.
The two seniors that were celebrated were Ashlee Locke and Nahawa Diarra. Locke scored 14 points with nine rebounds and one assist against the Spartans, while Diarra recorded seven points, six rebounds and an assist.
"Give a lot of credit to UNCG, they played well, shot the ball well," Head Coach Michelle Clark-Heard said at the press conference. Now, she said, the Bears have to prepare for "the third season, and that's the postseason." The Bears will face off against the No. 2-seeded University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the quarterfinals on March 6, in Asheville, N.C.
The Mocs beat Mercer by a combined 53 points in the regular season, but Clark-Heard said that if Mercer can connect on their own "open shots" and be disciplined in their defense of Chattanooga, the team can hold their own.
"I've coached in a lot of conference tournaments and won a lot," she said. "I'm excited about that and excited for the staff and I to make sure we get our girls ready to go, one game at a time."
