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Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009

Mercer women picked fifth in A-Sun polls

Mercer has an influx of new players on its women’s basketball team, but voters in the A-Sun’s preseason polls still think the Bears are contenders.

Mercer was picked to finish fifth by both the A-Sun coaches and media despite a roster of seven freshmen and four sophomores.

Senior guard LaToya Jackson was voted onto the preseason all-conference team. Jackson averaged 13.2 points last season and connected on 35.6 percent of her 3-pointers and 84.8 percent from the free-throw line.

She doesn’t have much familiar company returning with her. Mercer lost three of its top five scorers and four of its top five rebounders from the 17-14 team. But Mercer has some experience back in Courtney Ford (11.7 points per game and 5.8 rebounds), Kourtney Carter and Lacy Ramon.

After that, the Bears are inexperienced or just brand new.

“We’re building off of last year’s season, where we had the second-biggest turnaround in NCAA history,” said head coach Janell Jones, whose team won four games in 2007-08. “We have returning leadership in Courtney Ford and LaToya Jackson. We have (seven) freshmen coming in who are eager and are to be seeing a lot of playing time out on the floor.”

One of those freshmen is former Rutland standout Kendra Grant. She is one of four signees from Georgia: Sharmesia Smith of Jonesboro, Alex Phillips of Duluth and Amber Chatmon of Albany. Florida Gulf Coast was the choice to win the regular-season title with East Tennessee State picked to win the conference tournament, to be held at the University Center in early March in conjunction with the men’s tournament.

Florida Gulf Coast and USC Upstate remain ineligible for the conference tournament as they continue reclassifying from Division II to Division I.

ETSU, Belmont and Jacksonville were in front of Mercer in both polls in the same order. Mercer was picked to finish tied for eighth a year ago but ended up tied for fourth and lost in the conference tournament semifinals to eventual champ ETSU.

The Bears host Georgia College & State on Nov. 5 in an exhibition and begin the season on the road eight days later at Oklahoma, followed by visits to College of Charleston, Charleston Southern and Furman before the home opener on Dec. 3 against Lipscomb.

“We have a hard (and) difficult schedule,” Jones said. “(But) we hope to be cutting down the nets in March.

AROUND MERCER/A-SUN

• Don’t look now, but the men’s soccer team is among the leaders in the A-Sun.

The Bears dropped to 4-6-2 after Tuesday night’s non-conference loss to former A-Sun member Central Florida, but stand at 3-1 and tied with Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast for second place.

Their three-game conference winning streak ended Saturday with a 2-1 loss to USC Upstate. Focus in practice this week shouldn’t be hard. Conference leader Campbell visits Bears Field at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

• The karma hasn’t gotten any better for the just-missing Bears’ volleyball team. Mercer fell to 5-14 overall and 3-8 in the A-Sun with Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to Kennesaw State. And yet again, the Bears were right there, losing the three by a total of 23 points.

The average total points difference in Mercer’s 19 matches this season: 80 for opponents, 75 for Mercer. The average game score: Opponents 23.0, Mercer 21.7.

Of the Bears’ 44 game losses, 20 have come by three points or less.

• It has been a month of extremes for Mercer’s women’s soccer team.

The Bears started with a 1-0 win at Jacksonville, then lost 1-0 at North Florida. They came home and tied Belmont 0-0 but found the offense two days later and pounded Lipscomb 6-1, scoring a season high in goals.

Belmont has the biggest game of the season in the A-Sun, a 10-0 win over Alabama A&M. Mercer’s six-goal night is tied for third-highest in the conference.

AROUND GCSU/PEACH BELT

• GCSU is getting its money’s worth out of its defense and goalie Mary Rob Plunkett. The Bobcats racked up their sixth shutout this season with Sunday’s 3-0 win over Clayton State. Along the way, they kept in check Cherie Sayon, the No. 2 scorer in the Peach Belt.

• The men’s golf team is diving into another Division I-heavy field next week when it joins Peach Belt rival Armstrong Atlantic State at the Mizuno Savannah Intercollegiate, hosted by Georgia Southern.

The field for the Monday-Tuesday tournament includes A-Sun members Florida Gulf Coast, Jacksonville and Kennesaw State as well as East Carolina, Furman, Old Dominion, Troy and several Southern Conference teams.

GCSU is ranked second in Golf World/Nike released Wednesday and fourth in Golfstat.

• The Bobcats’ cross country teams are making regional noise.

GCSU’s men are ninth in the latest Southeast Region rankings of the national track and cross country coaches association while the women are 10th.

AROUND FVSU/SIAC

• The SIAC basketball tournament is moving east on I-20, from Birmingham to Atlanta. Morehouse’s Frank L. Forbes Arena will host the event, scheduled for March 1-6. The conference also moved the finals to that Saturday evening from Sunday afternoon.

• Only a few days after his abrupt dismissal as head football coach at Clark Atlanta on Oct. 6, Ted Bahhur filed a racial-discrimination complaint against the school and plans to file a lawsuit, as well. Ed Gadrix, Bahhur’s attorney, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Bahhur’s complaints show “a wide series of events that have taken place that have tried to force him out on racial grounds.”

Athletics director Tamica Jones and school president Carlton Brown declined comment.

Bahhur was fired three days after Clark lost to Kentucky State on homecoming to drop to 3-3 overall and 2-3 in the SIAC. He was 20-29 in his fifth season with the Panthers, and was replaced by assistant Keith Higdon.

Clark hosts conference leader Albany State this Saturday after having last weekend off.

A-Sun women’s basketball Coaches Poll 1. Florida Gulf Coast (6) 112 2. ETSU (4) 111 3. Belmont (1) 97 4. Jacksonville 71 5. Mercer 66 6. Kennesaw State 63 7. Stetson 58 8. USC Upstate 44 9. North Florida 40 10. Lipscomb 35 11. Campbell 29 Media Poll 1. Florida Gulf Coast (9) 199 2. ETSU (8) 194 3. Belmont 158 4. Jacksonville 142 5. Mercer 120 6. Stetson 119 7. Kennesaw State 112 8. North Florida 63 9. Campbell 61 10. USC Upstate 60 11. Lipscomb 57 A-Sun preseason team F Latisha Belcher, ETSU, Sr.; F-G Siarre Evans, ETSU, Sr.; G Courtney Jackson, Jacksonville, Sr.; G LaToya Jackson, Mercer, Sr.; G Greteya Kelley, Kennesaw State, Sr.; F Chelsea Lyles, FGCU, Sr.; G Chelsea McMillan, USC Upstate, Jr.; F Adrianne McNally, FGCU, Sr.; G Amber Rockwell, Belmont, Sr.; F-G TaRonda Wiles, ETSU, Sr.