Mercer Men’s Basketball Upended at Ohio, 76-67

ATHENS, Ohio (MERCER RELEASE) – Senior point guard Langston Hall cracked the 20-point barrier for the fourth time this season, but his effort couldn’t stop Ohio from erasing a nine-point deficit en route to a 76-67 victory over the Mercer men’s basketball team on Tuesday night at the Convocation Center.

Mercer dropped its third road game of the year and fell to 4-3 overall while Ohio won its 42nd home game in its last 45 outings at the Convocation Center and improved to 5-1.

Hall came into the night six assists short of setting Mercer’s career record, but finished three short of achieving the goal. He also grabbed three rebounds while scoring his 24 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the field and 10-of-12 shooting from the free throw line.

After Ohio scored first, the Bears ripped off a 12-3 run to take an early 12-5 lead. Ohio scored the game’s next four points to close within three, but T.J. Hallice converted an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Bears back a seven point buffer.

Mercer eventually went ahead by as much as nine before Ohio began a 14-3 run to take the lead back with under six minutes left in the period.

Three minutes later, Ohio junior forward Maurice Ndour was left 30 feet from the hoop with time running out on the shot clock. Ndour’s desperation heave went and sparked a 14-5 run to close the period and send the Bears to intermission trailing 39-30.

The Bobcats opened the second half with five unanswered and ultimately went ahead by 20 with 13:17 to play. Mercer kept chipping away at the deficit from then on, ultimately getting to within eight on a Hall three-pointer with 2:13 to play.

Ohio finished with 18 offensive rebounds and an overall 42-30 advantage on the glass. The Bobcats parlayed those 18 offensive rebounds into a 20-10 advantage in second chance scoring.

Sophomore guard Ike Nwamu joined Hall in double figures, scoring nine of his 15 total points in the second half. The outing marked his third-straight game in double digits.

Mercer continues its three-game road trip at Valparaiso on Friday. Game time is scheduled for 8:05 p.m.