BALTIMORE, Maryland March 21, 2014 - Mercer has beaten powerful Duke, 78-71, sending another member of the virtually unknown Atlantic Sun Conference on a Cindarella Journey. Last season the Bears were upset at home by Florida Gulf Goast in the conference title game, and FGC then battled deep into the NCAA Tourney as the nation's sweetheart. This season the tables were exactly reversed. Mercer, from Macon, Georgia, beat Florida Gulf Coast at their gym, getting the Atlantic Sun's automatic bid. The Bears start five seniors, very unlike Duke's line-up of young blue chip underclassmen. These upper classmen ended the game on a 20-8 run. Jakob Gollon led the Bears, 23-7, with 20 points. Duke was far under 50% from three point land, but it didn't keep the Blue Devils from heaving them up. Rasheed Sulaimon and Quinn Cook led Duke with 20 and 23 points, respectively. But Sulaimon fumbled a ball out of bounds after Duke had stolen an in-bounds pass in the waning seconds. An elated Mercer Coach Bud Hoffman, smiled and yelled into the CBS microphone immediately after the game, "Praise the Lord."
No comments:
Post a Comment