Mercer Men’s Basketball Hosts Kennesaw State in the CSS Game of the Week

MACON, Ga. (MERCER RELEASE) – The Mercer men’s basketball team eyes its best Atlantic Sun Conference start in 11 years on Friday as Kennesaw State comes to Hawkins Arena for the CSS Game of the Week. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. and will be simulcast on CSS Television and the WATCHESPN platform.

Mercer (12-5, 3-1 A-Sun) is a perfect 9-0 at home this season and can start 4-1 in league play for the first time since the 2002-03 season with a win. The 2002-03 edition of the Bears started 4-1 before going on to win the A-Sun Regular Season Championship.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT

Kennesaw State snapped an eight-game losing streak on Monday night with a 68-58 win over USC Upstate at the KSU Convocation Center. The Owls are 4-13 (1-3 A-Sun) on the season, including a 1-8 record in road games.

The Owls return three starters and seven letterwinners from last year’s team that finished 3-27 (2-16 A-Sun). The team was picked to finish 10th in a preseason poll of Atlantic Sun coaches.

Redshirt sophomore Orlando Coleman and senior guard Delbert Love provide Kennesaw State with a duel scoring threat, averaging 11.4 and 10.4 points per game. Coleman is riding a streak of seven-straight games with double-figure scoring while Love is seventh among A-Sun players with 1.9 3-pointers made per game.

Head coach Lewis Preston is in this third season with the team and after serving as an Assistant Coach at Penn State, Florida, Notre Dame and Coastal Carolina over a 16-year career.

FAST FACTS

Mercer owns 10 wins in 16 all-time meetings with Kennesaw State, including victories in five of the last six matchups. Mercer is 4-1 at home against Kennesaw State under Bob Hoffman.

Mercer is 20-1 in its last 20 regular season A-Sun home games dating back to the 2010-11 season. The Bears are also 39-4 at home since the start of the 2011-12 season.

Senior center Daniel Coursey enters Monday six blocks shy of tying Wesley Duke for the program’s career block record (173).

Senior forward Jakob Gollon needs four points to become the 37th member of Mercer’s 1,000-point scoring club.

Head coach Bob Hoffman is 36-12 after December 31 in the last three seasons.

Mercer is averaging 38.6 points off the bench over the last 12 games. Ike Nwamu leads the reserves at 11.2 ppg over that span. The Bears have scored 60 or more points off the bench three times this year (vs. Johnson & Wales – 72, vs. St. Andrews – 62, at North Florida -67).

Langston Hall dished three assists last time out, moving into eighth place among A-Sun career leaders in the stat. His 523 career assists also leads all active conference players.

Jakob Gollon was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA after suffering medical hardships in his first two collegiate seasons. He’s already played in 135 games and now just 11 games short of breaking into the top 20 all-time among NCAA career leaders in games played.