By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com
 

          Jordan Strawberry kept Mercer’s streak alive, hitting a layup with 7.6 seconds left to give the Bears a 69-68 win over Wofford Sunday for Mercer’s eighth straight win.

          Strawberry scored 19 of his game-high 21 points in the second half, and was set up by a timeout. Strawberry was open underneath and Stephon Jelks found him.

 

 

          Deep sharpshooter Fletcher Magee was just off to the left at the buzzer, and Mercer improved to 18-13 overall and 11-7 in conference play, ruining the Terriers’ Senior Day in the process.

          Mercer and Wofford are tied at 11-7 in conference play, but the Bears are the fourth seed and Terriers the fifth. And they’ll play again at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Southern Conference tournament in Asheville, N.C.

          The Bears will go for win No. 3 against the Terriers, Mercer taking a 73-65 win at home on Feb. 3.

          Sunday was a busy day on the men’s side, busy and mostly competitive.

          UNCG clinched the top seed with an 88-75 win over Samford.

          VMI nipped Chattanooga 68-65, Furman edged ETSU 79-76, Western Carolina thumped The Citadel 92-75.

          Furman is the second-hottest team in the league, having won six straight.

          There were no women’s games Sunday, that side having settled everything Saturday, although Mercer cemented its spot as No. 1 before that.

 

Final regular season standings

Women    Conf.         All

Mercer          14 - 0            27 - 2

ETSU             11 - 3            18 - 11

Chattanooga 8 - 6             17 - 11

Furman        7 - 7               17 - 12

Samford       6 - 8               14 - 15

UNCG            6 - 8               12 - 17

Wofford       3 - 11            10 - 19

W. Carolina 1 - 13            5 - 24

 

Men           Conf.         All

UNCG            15 - 3            24 - 7

ETSU             14 - 4            23 - 8

Furman        13 - 5            22 - 9

Wofford       11 - 7            20 - 11

Mercer          11 - 7            18 - 13

W. Carolina 8 - 10            13 - 18

Samford       6 - 12            10 - 21

The Citadel 5 - 13            10 - 20

VMI              4 - 14            9 - 20

Chattanooga 3 - 15          9 - 22

 

 

Women

Thursday

11 a.m.: 1/Mercer vs. 8/Western Carolina

1:15 p.m.: 4/Furman vs. 5/Samford

3:30 p.m.: 2/ETSU vs. 7/Wofford

5:45 p.m.: 3/Chattanooga vs. 6/UNCG

Friday

11 a.m.: Mercer/WCU winner vs. Furman/Samford winner

1:15 p.m.: ETSU/Wofford winner vs. Chattanooga/UNCG winner

Sunday

12 p.m.: Friday’s winners

All games streamed on ESPN3

 

Men

Friday

5 p.m.: 8/The Citadel vs. 9/VMI

7:30 p.m.: 10/Chattanooga vs. 7/Samford

Saturday

12 p.m.: 1/UNCG vs. The Citadel/VMI winner

2:30 p.m.: 4/Mercer vs. 5/Wofford

6 p.m.: 2/ETSU vs. Chattanooga/Samford winner

8:30 p.m.: 3/Furman vs. 6/Western Carolina

Sunday

4 p.m.: Winner of Saturday 12 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. games

6:30 p.m.: Winner of 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. games

Monday

9 p.m.: Championship, ESPN 2

All games streamed on ESPN3