Mercer rallies from a double-digit deficit in final minutes but falls to Clemson
The Mercer Bears women’s basketball team rallied from a late double-digit deficit but fell short against the Clemson Tigers, 65-61.
Mercer got off to a slow start and fell behind 12-0 early in the first quarter and was 0-for-8 shooting before Shannon Titus made a shot. The Bears closed the first quarter on a 9-3 run.
The Bears carried momentum into the second quarter and took their lone lead of the game with 3:53 left in the first half.
From there the two teams battled to halftime with Clemson clinging to a 33-28 lead. Mercer forward Jaron Dougherty kept the Bears in it with 10 points in the first half. She made five of her nine shots.
The Bears offense went cold to open the second half, scoring just two baskets in the first six minutes of the third quarter. Mercer’s defense didn’t let the Tigers pull away, however, as it trailed by 10 heading into the fourth quarter.
Clemson extended its lead to 14 points with under six minutes play. Mercer guard Tia Benvenuti nailed three shots from behind the 3-point line in closing minutes of the game.
The Bears went on a 20-9 run in the final five minutes to cut the lead to three with less than a minute to play.
The rally fell short as the Tigers hit their free throws down the stretch to close out the win on the road.
Mercer falls to 3-7 and goes on the road to play the University of Florida on Tuesday.
Stars of the game
Mercer forward Jaron Dougherty: Dougherty finished with 22 points and seven rebounds. She was the game’s top scorer. She shot an efficient 11-of-20 from the field and her midrange jump shot was a big reason why. The Bears will need her to be a consistent scorer throughout the rest of the season as they are still looking for a No. 1 option in crunch time.
Mercer forward Shannon Titus: She is one of the best scorers the Bears have. But even when she isn’t scoring 20 points, Titus is impacting the game in a variety of ways. She led the Bears with 14 rebounds against a much larger Clemson team. She also had four blocks, including one that she sent into the stands with force that fired up her team.
Clemson center Hannah Hank: Hank had a quiet 15-point and seven-rebound performance. She shot 5-of-6 from the field and went 5-of-7 from the free-throw line. Hank did all this in just over 25 minutes of work.
They said it
“Right now we don’t really have that go-to player, which we have had for the last five years of who wants the ball in crunch time. ... We just have to have a little more consistency from all players.” — Mercer coach Susie Gardner on the inexperience of the team.
“This is two tough games back-to-back. Very tough physically and mentally. Obviously, we beat Florida last year so I am sure they are talking about that. Now we have a totally different team this year. Florida is not that far away. We don’t have exams. We are in basketball mode right now.” — Gardner on tough schedule with Clemson and Florida in back-to-back games.
“I think we decided at the end that the game is not over. We can fight. We can come back and win. We just gave it all we had at the end.” — Mercer starting forward Shannon Titus