Mercer Men’s Basketball Hosts Seton Hall Saturday

MACON, Ga. (MERCER RELEASE) – The Mercer men’s basketball team continues early season non-conference play on Saturday, playing host to Seton Hall in Hawkins Arena. Game time is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Mercer (1-1) opened its home slate on Wednesday with a resounding 95-53 win over Reinhardt. The Bears are 31-3 at home in the last three seasons and have not dropped a non-conference home game since losing to South Dakota State on November 23, 2011.

SCOUTING SETON HALL

Seton Hall enters Saturday’s play with a 2-0 record after topping Niagara 83-72 and Kent State 78-76 in the opening week of play. Saturday’s game is the team’s first road contest of the year.

Seton Hall returns three starters and nine players from last year’s team that finished 15-18 (3-15 Big East). The Pirates were picked to finish eighth in the Big East Preseason Coaches’ Poll, while senior Fuquan Edwin was named to the league’s Preseason All-Big East second team.

Three Seton Hall players average double-figure scoring totals, led by Sterling Gibbs’ 21.5 point per game. He’s joined by Patrik Auda and Fuquan, who average 13.0 and 11.5 points per game, respectively.

Head coach Kevin Willard is in his third season with the program and seventh season overall. Willard was previously at Iona College, where he led the Gaels to a 21-10 record in 2009-10 and was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Coach of the Year.

FAST FACTS

Wednesday victory was Bob Hoffman’s 500th win as a collegiate head coach and 100th win at Mercer. Hoffman posted 88 wins with the women at Southern Nazarene, 243 wins with the men at Oklahoma Baptist, 69 wins with the men at Texas Pan-American and now 100 with Mercer.

Mercer’s 60 rebounds on Wednesday night was the highest single-game total for Mercer wins collecting 62 boards at VMI on December 9, 2006. All 14 of Mercer’s active players had multiple assists in the win over Reinhardt.

Mercer is 31-3 at home since the start of the 2011-12 season. Between the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, the Bears ripped off 17-straight home wins before falling to FGCU in last year’s A-Sun tournament final.

Langston Hall, Daniel Coursey, Jakob Gollon and Bud Thomas have started 70 games together in their Mercer careers. This year, they are joined by Anthony White Jr. to form an all-senior starting five.