Mercer comes up just short in thriller
The look was there and with it were the Mercer women’s NCAA Tournament hopes — at least a chance to stay alive and force overtime.
But Linnea Rosendal’s jumper with a foot on the 3-point line right before the buzzer Sunday bounced twice before it fell off the rim to seal Chattanooga’s 61-59 win in the Southern Conference Tournament championship game.
Mercer led 48-38 entering the fourth quarter, but Chattanooga quickly got back into it and was able to squeeze out its fifth straight conference tournament title. The Mocs are now 18-0 in conference tournament championship games and improve to 21-10 this season.
Mercer falls to 25-6 with it second straight loss to Chattanooga in the tournament title game.
Three who mattered
KeKe Calloway: The Mercer sophomore had a game-high 25 points and matched the tournament record with seven 7-pointers, while setting a tournament record with 14 3-point attempts.
Kahlia Lawrence: The Mercer junior had 22 points, hitting 8-of-22 from the floor.
Jasmine Joyner: The Chattanooga senior had 17 points and 15 rebounds.
Turning point
With Mercer leading by 10 entering the fourth quarter, Chattanooga senior Queen Alford scored five quick points to start the quarter, and that sparked the Mocs’ comeback.
Observations
Dominant fourth quarter: Chattanooga outscored Mercer 23-11 in the final quarter, shooting 8-of-11 (72.7 percent). Mercer shot 28.6 percent (4-of-14) in the quarter.
Controlling the paint: Chattanooga outscored Mercer 34-14 in the lane.
Moving the ball: Mercer had 18 assists on its 23 field goals, including 11 from point guard Sydni Means.
Worth mentioning
Controlling the series: With its second straight win over Mercer in the championship game, Chattanooga improved to 16-2 all time against Mercer, including four straight wins.
They said it
Mercer head coach Susie Gardner on the loss: “First of all I couldn’t be more proud to be Mercer’s coach and of the team we put out on the floor this entire year. I thought we outplayed Chattanooga for 28 minutes. We had a 13-point lead with 12 minutes to go. Our word for the year was ‘finish,’ and that’s what we needed to do. We needed to get stops and shots and not have untimely turnovers. That’s not what happened. This is very difficult, but we are proud of this group and the season that we’ve had.”
Gardner on the difference in the fourth quarter: “Probably our defense. We didn’t get stops. We had some turnovers that didn’t make sense. We just didn’t play our best offensively, and we didn’t get stops or defensive rebounds.”
Lawrence on the loss: “Like Coach said, we were playing well the first half and the beginning of the third quarter. We had confidence the whole game, but we gave up some easy baskets. We weren’t playing as good of defense as we were in the beginning of the game. We still had confidence that we were going to pull it out, but we kind of lost it. Not knocking Chattanooga, because we know they’re a great team, but we did some things that were uncharacteristic and gave this one away.”
Means on the final shot: “I knew that there were 3.9 seconds on the clock, and I knew I could get down the court in four seconds. I was going with the intention to shoot the shot, but I saw my teammate, and I knew that she could make that shot. It was a good look, though.”
Chattanooga head coach Jim Foster on Mercer’s final shot: “When I saw it take the second bounce, I thought it was coming my way instead of the opposite, so I felt pretty good about that.”
What’s next?
By sharing the regular-season conference title, Mercer will play in the WNIT.
This story was originally published March 5, 2017 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Mercer comes up just short in thriller."