Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6
THE MERCER CLUSTER
JANUARY 27. If72
Mercer Bears defeat
W. Florida, S. Florida
The Mercer Bears, sparked
by their own desire to win the
last 13 games of the season in a
row, got that streak off to a good
start with wins over South
Florida and West Florida, last
week.
The first win, a 93-38 decision
over South Florida in Tampa on
Wednesday (19th) was game
which Mercer head coach
Dwane Morrison called "an
average game for us."
"We didn’t play as a team,
especially on defense"
Morrison said. What was
lacking was team discipline on
defense."
Jack Scott led the Bears in
scoring with 27 points, hitting 18
of them in the first half. Most of
Scott's shots were 20 to 20 foot
jumpers from the corner.
Bruce Gordy, in addition to
his lOpoints, also had 10assists,
seven of them in the first half.
Billie Smith led the Bear
rebounders with 7.
The Bears got off to a quick
start, moving out to a 14-8 lead
on a jumper by Leonard Hardin
with 14:27 io play in the half.
The Bears had another eight
point lead, 17-9, when Mike
Green hit a foul shot with 12:54
in the half.
But South Florida came back,
closing to within two points, 35-
1 33 on a field goal by John Kiser
.with five minutes to play in the
half.
Mercer then hit a streak, and
upped their lead to eleven at one
time, 48-37, after Smith hit a
lay-up with 45 seconds to go.
A field goal by South Florida’s
Tommy Davis made the score
49-41 at the half.
Morrison used his platoon
system at the start of the first
half, but later decided to call on
the first squad, while using
Eddie Creech, Mike Green and
David Jones as substitutes.
Scott, in addition to his
scoring totals, also tallied the
first six Bear points, and eight
of the first ten.
At the start of the second half,
Scott continued his heroics and
kept Mercer out of any trouble
for a while.
But the Brahamins of South
Florida came alive, ripping off
seven straight points, making
the score 52-51 with 16:44 to
play. After Jones hit a foul shot,
Kiser hit a 20-footer to make the
score 54-53.
The Bears then went on a
streak of their own, getting
seven straight points to up the
score to 61-53 with 13:54
remaining in the game. Smith,
Jones, Scott and Gordy tallied
to give the Bears that lead.
But the Bulls were not dead
yet, and kept the pressure on
Mercer until, with the score 7J-
68 in favor of Mercer, they hit
five straight points to go ahead
for the first time in the game,
73-72, with 7:47 on the clock.
After Smith hit a lay-up to
quiet down the gym, and give
the Bears back the lead. South
Florida came right back and
put five points in a row through
the nets, giving them a 78-74
advantage with 6:44 to play in
the game.
That was to be their high-
water mark for the game,
however, as Mercer came right
back with eight points of their
own to take the lead, this time
for good. 82-78, with 5:12 on the
clock.
Green Scott, Jones and
Brabham hit for the points, with
Brabham getting the last two on
a stolen in-bounds pass.
Mercer coasted the rest of the
way, getting up to 93-84 before
South Florida hit for their last
four points.
The next night saw the Bears
in Pensacola to take on the West
Florida Argonauts, a team the
Bears had defeated earlier in
the year at the Coliseum by a 74-
73 count.
The Bears took this one also,
by a score of 83-79.
"We played our best game as
a team" a proud Coach
Morrison said in his motel room
right after the game. "We had
gogd teamwork both offensively
and defensively. But when you
play against a team that con
trols the ball offensively like
West Florida does, it is hard to
keep your rythm."
Billie Smith led the Bear
offense with 21 points, as well as
collecting 13 rebounds, both
game highs. Gordy, Hardin, and
Creech each chipped in 15.
The game started off as just
one hot streak versus another.
Mercer, behind Smith, Gordy,
and Hardin, jumped off to an 8-0
lead. The Argonauts cut it to 8-6,
and after Gordy hit a 20-footer,
West Florida hit a streak that
gave them the lead, 14-10, with
12:09 to play iq the half.
With Jones and Green doing
the scoring, the Bears moved
right back out into the lead, 18-
14. The Argonauts tied it at 16,
then the Bears went ahead to
stay, 21-16, on a Creech shooting
spree, with ten minutes left in
the half.
Mercer’s biggest lead of the
half was six points, 38-32,
reached on a Hardin jumper
with 1:22 to play in the half.
Both teams went into their
respective dressing ’x>ms with
the score Mercer 40, West
Florida 37.
The Bears came out in the
second half like they weren’t
playing as the visitors, out-
socring the Argonauts 15-2 to
give them their biggest lead of
the night, 55-39, with 15:19 to ,
play in the game.
But for the rest of the night,
the Bears had to hang on by
their claws as the Argonauts
came back steadily. West
Florida came as close as three,
74-71, with 2:29 to play, before
the Bears dug in and turned
them back.
Southern Tech loses
to Mercer, score 91-77
The Mercer Bears ran their
win streak to three and boosted
their season record to 10-4 with
a 91-77 win over Southern Tech
in Marietta last Monday (24th).
All of the Bears got in to see
action, with the second squad
playing most df the second half.
Offensively, Jack Scott led the
Bears with 16 points, Bruce
Gordy had 14 and Leonard
Hardin 12. On rebounds, Billie
Smith had seven, while Hardin
and Marvin Bailey had six a
piece.
Hardin also led the team with
five assists, and Scott had four.
“They showed a lot of
character out there tonight"
beemed Coach Dwane
Morrison. “They are beginning
to play for Mercer."
The game proved to be a ho-
hum-what-do-you-want-me-to-
do-now type of game for the
Bears, as the closest the Green
Hornets got to Mercer in the
Game was an Early 4-4 tie.
Mercer broke that open to a
14-6 margin behind the shooting
of Gordy and Scott.
Southern Tech* came right
back, however, and cut it to 14-
11, and minutes later made it
even closer on a lay-up by
Randy Rountree to make the
score 17-15 with 13:50 to play in
the first half.
But the Bears got back on the
stick, and moved out to a 21
point lead, 55-32, after Bailey
and Gordy hit lay-ups for the
lead with just about a minute in
the half.
Tech’s Curtis Bivins hit two
foul shots towards the end of the
half to make the score 55-34 at
intermission.
With the first string in, the
Bears moved out to a 59-34 lead
at the start of the second half on
two lay-ups by Smith.
About three minutes later, the
whole first string came out, and
the other eight players spent the
night on the floor.
Mercer got it’s lead up to 30
points, 76-46, on two foul shots
by John Kinman with ten
minutes left to play in the game.
But Southern Tech refused to
go down without scaring the
Bears a little bit, and closed the
large gap to seventeen, 82-85,
after running off a string of
eleven straight points.
Four shots by Charlie Dixon
and IClnman gave the Bears
their 20 point lead back with
3:50 to play.
The Hornets mad-- a good try
to comeback, but they could
only come as close as 12, 89-77
on a lay-up by Bivins with 39
seconds to play.
Kinman hit two foul shots
with 14 seconds left to round out
the scoring.
A brawl almost broke out,
when, with six minutes left in
the game, Larry Falls hit
MacDonald of Southern Tech
with a left jab that gave Mac
Donald two foql shots, which he
missed, and Falls a seat on the
bench for the rest of the game.
Bears beat Braves:
Mercer 95, W.-Ga. 78
Led by Jack Scott, the Mercer
Bears defeated the West
Georgia Braves 95-78, avenging
their earlier 81-78 loss to West
Georgia over the Christmas
vacation.
Scott led the Mercer scurers
with 17 points, with Leonard
Hardin and Billie Smith getting
16 a piece. Smith also took the
rebounding honors with 13.
For West Georgia, Barry
Allan had a game high 19 points,
with Bobby York getting 14.
Willie Lewis led the Braves with
nine rebounds.
The game was marked a lot of
physical contact, the type of
game that makes the advocates
of “basketball is not a contact
sport” shiver.
In the last two minutes of the
game, tempers flared openly on
both sides when Mercer’s
Charlie Dixon and West
Georgia's Whit Mathews got
into a elbow shoving match
during a wild scramble for a
loose ball.
Both benches emptied, with
Scott, Dixon, and Marvin Bailey
getting in the thick of it. After
about five minutes, the coaches
and re frees managed to get both
sides calmed down and back to
their respective benches.
As for the game itself, it was
Mercer’s all the way, say for the'
3-2 lead that the Braves enjoyed
after a field goal by Greg Allen,
with 17:55 to play in the first
half.
Mercer then ripped off seven
straight points, with Scott
getting five of them, to give him
seven of the first nine Bear
points.
West Georgia cut the margin
to two, 20-18, when Harley
Stewart hit a ten-foot jumper
with 9:23 left in the half.
But the Bears kept their of
fense going, and minutes later
hit a spurt of eight straight
points, with Monnie Brabham,
Smith and Hardin, getting the
points to make it 35-21 with a
little over three minutes to play.
A three point play by Barry
Allen closed the gap to six, 40-34
with nine seconds to go, but a
foul shot by Mike Green, and
then a 12-footer by Smith at the
buzzer gave Mercer a 43-34
halftime bad.
Mercer Kept better than ten
points ahead of West Georgia
throughout the second half, then
hit five straight points to make
it a 20 point lead, 65-45, after a
foul shot by John Kinman with
11:30 left in the game.
Mercer had it’s biggest lead
of the game, 25 points, after a
six point spurt made it 81-56.
Smith and Green hit for the
buckets that gave the Bears th$
lead with eight minutes to play.
The Bears kept their twenty
point lead until the last minute
and a half, when Lewis hit a
field goal and Skeet Crigler and
Barry Allen hit foul shots, to
make the score 95-78.