Newspaper Page Text
4
MERCER CLUSTER
Players Honored
Bears Win
Second Annual
Mercer Invitational
Perhaps influenced by perform
ances of “underdog” teams in some
bowl game, the Mercer Bears used
a tenacious defense and ripped
pre-tournament favorite Georgia
Southern to shreds, 73-59, to win
the second annual Mercer Invita
tional last weekend in the Coli
seum.
Nowhere near favorites and
bringing the worst record, 1-4, into
the tournament, the Bears de
stroyed their opponents with sur
prising ease. They trailed only
once in the entire tournament, fall
ing behind Ft. Valley State 1-0 in
their first game, and dominated
the All-Tournament team, with
Little All-America candidate Jud
Roberts capturing Most Valuable
Player honors. Robert Bclloir and
freshman Bruce Gordy were select
ed to the All-Tourney team. Other
members of the All-Tournament
included Walter Gilmore of Ft,
Valley State, Kenny Davis of
Georgetown and David Westerfield
of Georgia Southern.
In the first game, the Bears
rolled up a twenty point lead in
the second half of play and fought
off a game Ft. Vhlley team for an
80-70 victory.
The Bears displayed a balanced
scoring attack with five players
scoring in double figures. Roberts
and Bclloir led the way with 17
a piece, followed by Gordy, Jim
Graham and Marvin Bailey, an
other freshman, with 14 each.
Gordy, a product of Lanier High,
made his debut as a starter, One
he’ll long remember as he played
a fine defensive game and rebound
ed well against players who were
as much as six inches taller.
The Bean utilized a fast break
with crisp, pin-point passes to run
away with the Wildcats, who had a
By LOUIS JOHNSON
Sports Writer
dismal night from the floor, hitting
on only 28 of 92 shots for a 29.5
per cent shooting average. Mercer
hit on 33 of 77 field goals for 43.5
per cent. The Bears held a big
edge in rebounding, capturing 75
errant shots to 51 for the Wildcats.
In the championship game, the
Bears played defense like it was
supposed to be played. They al
lowed the Eagles only eight points
in the last nine minutes and won
going away. The Bears led 8-1
early in the game and increased
that lead to as much as 11 points
before their biggest lead of 14 late
in the game and at it’s conclusion.
With 6-5 Bailey sticking to
Southern’s Roger Moore like glue
and getting plenty of help from his
teammates when needed, the Bears
held Moore to only four points
after he had wrecked Georgetown
the night before with 29 points.
The Eagles had their hands full
as they tried everything in their
“playground" looking offense, but
their inability to hit from outside
proved to be decisive in the out
come.
The Bears hit on 28-64 field
goals for 45 per cent while holding
Southern to 27-84 for just 33 per
cent These percentages gave the
Bears a 44.5 shooting percentage
for the two games, while their
opponents shot at a cool 32 per
cent.
The Eagles held a slim advan
tage in the rebound department
however, claiming 54 to 50 for the
Bears. These figures gave the
Bears a two game total of 125 re
bounds to 105 for their opponents.
This was only part of the story
that spelled victory for the Bears.
Perhaps the most significant fact
is that Use Bears defense held the
opposition to an average of only
64.5 a game, far below their sea
son average prior to the tourna
ment of 85 points-per-game al
lowed. Mercer averaged 76 points
for the two games, just four points
below their season average before
the games.
Kenny Davis of Georgetown ran
away with scoring honors in the
tournament with a total of 61
points. His teammate, James Davis,
an All-America candidate, was
runnerup with 56 points.
The next home game for the
Bears will be on Jan. 9 against a
tough Georgia State team that de
feated the Bears in the first game
of the season. The young State
team has been playing the role of
giant killers this year, having beat
the Bears, a usually strong Florida
Southern quintet, and Rollins.
This should be an interesting re
match for a re-vitalized Bear five.
Coach Bob Wilder said that
Georgia State is a much improved
team and will be tough to beat
“Tivey beat Rollins and Rollins has
a win over Stetson, who beat us in
our first home game,” said Wilder.
Coach Wilder, still savoring the
weekend victories, expressed plea
sure over the recent play of his
Bears. “We didn't shoot as much
as wc usually do, but they played
a much smarter game and good
defense, and you can’t win until
you play defense,” said Wilder.
Roberts Third
Best Scorer In
Bear's History
Senior Jud Roberts, Mercer's
Little All-American candidate,
shattered nine all-time Mercer re
cords and placed third in career
scoring for the Bears.
Roberts, who has been accepted
by the dental schools at Emory and
North Carolina, wound up his
career with 1,699 points. Tommy
Mixon with 1,801 points and Glen
Wilkes with 1.738 tops Roberts
career total. However, he played
in two less games then Wilkes and
12 less than Mixon.
Roberts has averaged 18.29 points
per game for the four years, but
Bears coach Bobby Wilder isn't
about to let his rebounds go un
noticed. Wilder said, “He had 210
points this year and 548 for his
career, which is very good for
someone who played guard most
of his career.”
Despite his scoring ability, Ro
berts has been far less than a
gunner. He broke the Mercer re
cord for assists as a Senior with
134 and career with 369.
Other records set by Roberts
were: best field goal percentage as
a freshman (454), junior (509) and
senior (499), best free throw per
centage as a sophomore (75 per
cent), most field goals in one game
(20 against La Grange this year),
most field goals as a senior (248),
and best field goal per centage in
one game (18-21 for 85.7 against
Columbus this year).
Although the Bears are losing
one of their greatest scorers, Ro
bert Belli or, a junior from Atlanta,
is actually ahead of Roberts pace
and could pass him during his
senior year.
Bellior is sixth in career scoring
and needs 544 points next season
to pass Roberts. He scored 493
points this year so the record is in
reach. Bellior is averaging 16.9
points per game for his first three
years, compared to Robert's 15.9
mark before his senior year.
Roberts wound Up as Mercer's
leading scorer for the year with a
22.19 average, while Bellior was
close behind with an 18.92 mark.
SNAKES TIE
CRESCENTS
The defending champion Snakes
of Sigma Nu met a determ in td
Kappa Sigma team last Tuesday,
and the result was a 20-20 tie in the
first game for both teams.
The game was a hard-fought bat
tle from the moment the ball was
kicked off. The Snakes struck first
as they jumped to a 7-0 lead mid
way in the first period. Quarter
back Henry Vann led his team
down field to score as the Kappa
Sig defense had some Initial trou
ble in containing the Snakes’ pass
ing attack. But the Crescents were
not to be outdone as they roared
back under the direction of quar
terback Mike Crook. He scrambled
back and fourth across the field
searching for receivers while at the
same time escaping the pursuing
Snake defenders. He found Randy
Lintell alone and rifled a pass to
him late in the quarter to make
the score 7-6. It remained this way
at the half as the Snakes held and
prevented the extra point.
The second half was an offensive
as well as defensive battle as first
one team and then the other edged
out front. A Crook to Toon Butler
bomb brought the Crescents ahead.
With Quarterback Crook at the
helm, agajn the Crescents started
to move. He scrambled for valuable
yardage and struck with precision
passes to bring them within scor
ing distanoe. On an important
fourth down play Crook could find
no receivers open, to he kept the
ball and headed for the corner of
the end zone to score. Freshman
Rip Meirhof mad* a diving grab
of the extra point try to make the
score 20-20. The Snakes had one
last opportunity to scar* in the
last few seconds on a long peas but
the alert Crescent secondary con
sistency batted the ball away from
the intended receivers.