Mercer holds off late KSU rally

Dec. 2—KENNESAW — Jalen Johnson scored 18 points, making four 3-pointers, and helped lead Mercer to a 73-71 victory over Kennesaw State on Wednesday at the KSU Convocation Center.

It was the 10th straight victory for the Bears (4-4) in the series of former conference rivals. It was also their first road win of the season, but one they had to work every second to attain.

With 5:27 to play, Mercer went up 64-54 on a three-point play by James Glisson III. It was then that Kennesaw State (3-5) started its push.

Back-to-back baskets by Spencer Rodgers and Brandon Stroud cut the deficit to six points. The lead was still six with 1 minute to play when Rodgers, who led the Owls with 23 points, connected on a 3-pointer.

After a defensive stop, former Campbell High School standout Terrell Burden, who had 13 points, took an outlet pass and drove to the basket for a reverse layup to cut the Mercer lead to 70-69 with 20.2 seconds to play. Rodgers' layup on Kennesaw State's next position kept it a one-point game, and when Mercer's Neftali Alvarez missed the first of his two free throws, the Owls had a chance to tie or win the game at the end of regulation.

Rodgers took the inbound pass and drove straight to the basket. He appeared to get too far down the lane before attempting to get the potential tying layup on the glass, and it bounced straight up and into the hands of Mercer's Felipe Haase as time ran out.

"I was really proud of our effort the last 5 minutes of the game," Kennesaw State coach Amir Abdur-Rahim said. "I was happy how we responded, but we needed to share the ball more at the end of the (first) half and the beginning of the second half. We needed to put together a complete game and play more consistent to come away with the victory."

Coming off an 89-52 victory over Charleston Southern the last time out, it looked like Kennesaw State had picked up where it left off to start Wednesday's game. A dunk by Rodgers and a 3-pointer by Chris Youngblood, who finished with 12 points, spurred a 9-3 run to give the Owls their biggest lead of the game at 21-11 with 11:02 to play in the first half.

Mercer got back into the game with a 16-5 run, which was highlighted with eight of Haase's 16 points, to take its first lead of the night at 27-26 with 4:34 to play. The lead changed hands five times over the next 3:30, but the Bears closed the half with back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 39-34 lead.

For Abdur-Rahim, the middle 20 minutes of the game was the point where Kennesaw State fell short.

"We didn't play team basketball for those 20 minutes. Offensively, we tried to do too much 1-on-1. I can't remember the last time the Convocation Center was this loud," he said about the boisterous crowd of 1,518. "We let a golden opportunity slip away."

Early in the second half, Alvarez scored six of his 16 points during a 11-6 run to push the Bears' lead to 10 for the first time, at 50-40.

Mercer finished the game shooting 51% from the floor, including 8-of-19 from behind the arc. Kennesaw State shot only 42.9% and struggled from behind the 3-point line, going only 7-of-26.

The Owls outrebounded the Bears 35-28, including pulling down 16 on the offensive end of the floor.