Mercer Men’s Basketball Welcomes ETSU Monday Night

MACON, Ga. (MERCER RELEASE)  – The Mercer men’s basketball team looks to preserve an unbeaten home record on Monday night as East Tennessee State invades Hawkins Arena. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Mercer (11-5, 2-1 A-Sun) improved to 8-0 at home on Saturday afternoon with a 62-60 win over USC Upstate. ETSU owns a 12-5 lead in the all-time series between the teams, but Mercer has won three-straight versus the Buccaneers. Mercer has not lost at home to ETSU since Jan. 3, 2011.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT

ETSU has won four-straight games and six of their last seven games overall. The Buccaneers are 8-6 (1-0 A-Sun) on the year and 2-4 in road games.

The Buccaneers return three starters from last year’s team that finished 10-22 (8-10 A-Sun). The team was picked to finish sixth among A-Sun competition in a preseason poll of league coaches.

A balanced scoring attack has four ETSU players averaging double figure scoring, led by junior guard Rashawn Rembert’s 15.1 points per game average. Rembert is particularly deadly from three-point range, where he’s shooting 44.7% (14-of-38) on the season.

The Buccaneers are third among A-Sun teams in scoring, averaging 75.2 points per game. The team has broke the 80-point barrier seven times this season and scored over 100 points in all three non-division I games on their schedule.

Head coach Murray Bartow is in this 11 season with ETSU and captured the 300th win of his career on Saturday against Kennesaw State. Bartow has led ETSU to the NCAA tournament three times in his 11 seasons.

FAST FACTS

The Bears have won five games this season by five or less points. Under Bob Hoffman, Mercer is 31-23 in games decided by five points or less.

Mercer is 4-0 in overtime games this year, with wins over Seton Hall, Valparaiso, Denver and USC Upstate. The Bears have won five-straight overtime games and are 10-1 in their last 11 overtime games.

Mercer is 19-1 in its last 20 regular season A-Sun home games dating back to the 2010-11 season.

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

Mercer is 2-1 in league play for the third-straight season. A win on Monday would put the Bears at 3-1 in league play for the third consecutive season.

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 35-12 after December 31 in the last three seasons.