Mercer Bears (15-11, 5-6 SoCon) at Furman Paladins (16-11, 8-4 SoCon)
Greenville, South Carolina; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Furman hosts Mercer after Clare Coyle scored 21 points in Furman’s 68-59 loss to the Samford Bulldogs.
The Paladins are 9-5 on their home court. Furman leads the SoCon in rebounding, averaging 34.9 boards. Coyle leads the Paladins with 9.1 rebounds.
The Bears are 5-6 against SoCon opponents. Mercer has a 7-9 record in games decided by 10 points or more.
Furman is shooting 40.4% from the field this season, 0.8 percentage points higher than the 39.6% Mercer allows to opponents. Mercer has shot at a 38.0% rate from the field this season, 1.1 percentage points less than the 39.1% shooting opponents of Furman have averaged.
The teams play for the second time in conference play this season. Furman won the last meeting 60-49 on Jan. 23. Alyssa Ervin scored 20 points points to help lead the Paladins to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Coyle is averaging 15 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.1 steals for the Paladins. Ervin is averaging 14.6 points over the last 10 games.
Nahawa Diarra Berthe is scoring 11.3 points per game with 5.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists for the Bears. Micah O’Dell is averaging 7.8 points and 3.2 rebounds while shooting 26.4% over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Paladins: 7-3, averaging 62.4 points, 33.2 rebounds, 11.6 assists, 9.9 steals and 4.0 blocks per game while shooting 38.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 56.9 points per game.
Bears: 4-6, averaging 59.1 points, 28.8 rebounds, 10.1 assists, 8.4 steals and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 36.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 63.6 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.