Mercer men looking for strong finish

The Mercer men's basketball team has hit a skid like it hasn't endured since the 2010-11 season, but there is still plenty to play for in the final three regular season games.

That starts Saturday with the Bears' final home game of the season against East Tennessee State.

Mercer then closes out the regular season at VMI and UNC Greensboro before heading to Asheville, North Carolina, for the Southern Conference tournament.

"We've got three games. We're gonna give all we've got," Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman said on the ESPN3 broadcast Thursday. "We're trying to win all those."

Mercer's four-game losing streak is its first since it suffered two four-game skids in 2010-11. The Bears have dropped to 18-10 overall and 8-7 in conference play, putting them in fifth place. The Bears lead Western Carolina and UNC Greensboro by one game in the conference standings and lost both games to Western Carolina.

The top six teams avoid the first round of the conference tournament.

"It's still important how you finish," Hoffman said. "You've got to get in some kind of rhythm for conference play."

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Mercer men looking for strong finish ."