SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford men's basketball team led for 26 minutes on Wednesday night, but could not close out Mercer, falling to the Bears 70-68.
Wofford outrebounded Mercer 35-32, but had eight turnovers that led to 12 points. Chevez Goodwin recorded his fourth double-double of the season, with a team-high 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Storm Murphy scored 15 points and Nathan Hoover had 10. The Bears were led by Maciej Bender who totaled 18 points, and Djordje Dimitijevic who scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half.
"Credit to Mercer," Wofford head coach Jay McAuley said. "They made enough plays down the stretch and got a couple free throws late and that was the difference. But certainly we could have handled things better in the first and second half."
The Terriers now hold a record of 16-10 (8-5 SoCon) while Mercer moves to 13-13 overall and 7-6 in the SoCon. Wofford will cap off its three-game home stand on Saturday, hosting Western Carolina at 7 p.m.
"Our guys had plenty of open looks that we usually make and we didn't make them tonight," said McAuley. "But defensively, you gotta be on your toes the entire 40 minutes and connected whether your shots are falling or not."
Goodwin was locked in from the start, converting a three-point play and a hook shot before a Hoover jumper made the score 7-4. The offense continued to go through Goodwin, adding five more before a pair of 3-pointers put the Terriers ahead 20-12 with just over nine minutes to play in the first.
Tray Hollowell got into the mix, knocking down a transition three before Murphy and Messiah converted buckets to extend the lead to nine. Wofford looked to pull away, leading 33-23 with 3:05 left in the first, but a four-point play from Dimitijevic and a pair of free throws made the deficit just five going into half.
"Mercer got some easy dunks and layups that really got us spread out and that got their confidence going." When you leave it up to chance at the end when a call might not go your way, you're waiting too late.
Goodwin scored inside and convert a three-point play, but Mercer chipped away to make the score 44-42 in favor of Wofford. The Bears would take their first lead of the game at the 13-minute mark before Goodwin scored through contact and a putback from Hollowell knotted it up at 48-48.
Mercer jumped ahead 60-55 when Murphy scored four consecutive points to cut the deficit to one. Trevor Stumpe and Donovan Theme-Love knocked down a pair of treys to tie the game up at 65-65 at the three-minute mark, with the Bears hitting free throws to make the score 68-65 with 12.2 seconds remaining. Hoover and Theme-Love each had a look from downtown but could not convert, as Mercer knocked down two more free throws to leave with the two-point win.
"We practice that a lot and we have full confidence in Nate," McAuley said. "How many shots went in and out tonight? That shot was back iron. It just wasn't our night offensively but we'll have to quickly flush this loss and have confidence and get to work for Saturday."
