Mercer Men’s Basketball Rolls to 83-46 Win over Kennesaw State

MACON, Ga. (MERCER RELEASE) – The Mercer men’s basketball team is off to its best start in Atlantic Sun Conference play in over a decade following an 83-46 win over Kennesaw State at Hawkins Arena on Friday evening. Senior Bud Thomas scored a game-high 18 points and senior Jakob Gollon scored his 1,000th career point to help the Bears improve to 13-5 (4-1 A-Sun) with the win.

Mercer forced Kennesaw State (4-14, 1-4 A-Sun) into 20 turnovers while only giving the ball away twice in the runaway victory. Mercer’s win was its seventh win by 20 or more points this season and marked the 26th win by 20 or more during the Bob Hoffman era.

Thomas collected his 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 aim from beyond the arc. The senior also notched six rebounds, two assists and a steal in his first game playing without a face mask after suffering a broken nose against Jacksonville on Jan. 30.

Mercer placed four players in double figures for the eighth time this season as sophomore Ike Nwamu (16 points), senior Langston Hall (14 points) and senior Daniel Coursey (11 points) added to the brunt of the Bears’ scoring attack.

Kennesaw State wasn’t intimated by a near sell-out crowd at the start, hitting 5-of-10 from the field in the opening eight minutes of play to take a slim 11-9 lead at the second media timeout of the half.

Out of the stoppage, Mercer came out with renewed defensive intensity and held the Owls scoreless for the next 10:47 while pouring on 20-unanswered points to take a commanding 31-11 in the final minute of the half. A tip-in layup for Coursey sent the Bears to intermission leading 33-14.

Mercer quickly went ahead by 28 after starting the second half on a 13-4 run and never looked back en route to the win. The Bears would ultimately go ahead by as many as 42 in the second half.

Mercer’s 4-1 conference record marks the team’s best start to league play since also going 4-1 during the 2002-03 season. The 2002-03 edition of the Bears went on to win the A-Sun Regular Season Championship with a 14-2 A-Sun record.

Mercer returns to A-Sun play at Northern Kentucky on Jan. 16. Game time at The Bank of Kentucky Center is scheduled for 7 p.m.