Spartanburg, SC – Wofford's women's basketball team showed that their first conference game wasn't going to affect them at all, as they came out and made easy work of the Mercer Bears Saturday afternoon, defeating them for the first time since 1997.

Wofford rolled to a comfortable 77-49 victory, which brings them even in conference play (1-1) and 8-9 overall. Mercer moves to 0-2 in conference play and 3-14 overall.

Jamari McDavid started the 1^st quarter on fire. She snagged an offensive rebound which sent her to the free-throw line. After converting one of the free-throws, she drove hard to the rim and banked in a layup. She increased her range as her next bucket would be from outside the paint, giving Wofford an early 7-4 lead. The Terriers would go on a 12-2 run for the next three minutes led by Da'Ja Green. She shot over her defender for a three, then made a "shake-and-bake" move for an open jumper. Niyah Lutz also added a triple and Lilly Hatton made a 14-footer to improve on Wofford's lead. Following an offensive rebound, Alexis Tomlin made two free-throws to end the quarter with Wofford ahead 21-16.

The 2^nd quarter began with Green scoring on the Terriers' first possession. After Mercer brought the game to within four, Jamari McDavid converted on both of her free-throws and scored a jumper from the right block which gave Wofford a 32-22 lead at the media timeout. Not much offense happened in the remaining 4:03, but Lawren Cook did sink two free-throws to end the half to put the Terriers up 10 at the half.

The start of the 2^nd half saw Wofford spread the ball out and find open players for easy baskets. First it was Lilly Hatton who was found by Cairo booker for a layup. After a Jamari McDavid "steal and score", Cairo was able to score a layup of her own. Da'Ja Green then found Chloe Wanink for a three-pointer which forced Mercer to take a timeout. After a couple more free-throws, Green scored seven straight points to make Mercer call another timeout. Niyah Lutz made the play of the game as she drove into the paint, made an off-balance, one-handed shot, and got fouled as she finished off the 3-point play. Lutz finished off the quarter with a layup and put Wofford up 16 going into the 4^th quarter.

The Terriers, the highest scoring team in the SoCon, continued to show their offensive power as they did not let up on the Bears. Cairo Booker and Jamari McDavid set the tone early in the 4^th quarter, then it turned into the Lilly Hatton show for three minutes. She made a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put Wofford up 19, then went inside for a layup, then went outside the paint for a jumper, and finished her scoring stretch with another triple to seal the game for Wofford, putting them ahead 71-47. The Terriers outscored the Bears 6-2 in the final 4:29 to give them their first conference win of the year.

Four Terriers found themselves in double figures, with Da'Ja Green leading the way with 19. Jamari McDavid and Lilly Hatton had 14 apiece, and Niyah Lutz added 12. McDavid scored herself her second double-double of the season finishing with 10 rebounds. Wofford was also efficient taking care of the ball as they only turned the ball over six times, tying a season best.

"I thought our players did a phenomenal job of the game plan and executing it, and at the end of the day we played really hard, but we also played really smart and that's what won us the game", said head coach Jimmy Garrity. "We challenged them defensively and I thought we were confident that our teammates had our back, and that was the smartness in our play today. Everybody was locked in and we played together as a total unit and everyone had a lot of fun out there. We're going to enjoy this victory, it's going to motivate us, and it will take our best effort to win next week.

The Terriers will travel to Tennessee for a pair of games starting on Thursday night against Chattanooga, followed by a contest against ETSU on Saturday afternoon.