Mercer men’s team opens season with win

Ria’n Holland had an impressive debut for the Mercer men’s basketball team, scoring 24 points in the Bears’ 87-53 win over Brewton-Parker on Friday night.

Mercer finished the game with a 28-0 run after leading by 10 points at the half. Demetre Rivers added 18 points for Mercer, while Stephon Jelks added 10 and Jordan Strawberry had 11 assists.

Holland made 7-of-14 from the floor and hit five 3-pointers.

“It wasn’t so much a slow start but a really good team we were playing,” Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman said. “They have good players. We talked about it for several days. They play the way you are supposed to play — they are very unselfish, they have good shooters, good ballhandlers and passers. We were in a dog fight, and we knew we were going to have to play. Then their size bothered us because we were having to match up with bigs on the perimeter, forcing us to play a lot of zone which we don’t like to do.”

Mercer returns to action Sunday night at Florida.

This story was originally published November 12, 2016 at 2:26 AM with the headline "Mercer men’s team opens season with win."