The Mercer Bears (18-14, 11-7 SoCon), will continue their basketball campaign in Phoenix, AZ. when they take on Grand Canyon in the opening round of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). Mercer and GCU will tip-off at 10 p.m. EST Wednesday night at GCU Arena. The Antelopes come in having won five of their last six games.
The Antlelopes are 16-2 at home, with their only losses against San Diego and New Mexico State. GCU’s best wins of the season came in conference by sweeping Utah Valley, who currently are No. 84 in the RPI.
Mercer’s best win of the season was a 77-74 win over eventual Southern Conference champion UNC Greensbor. The Bears were one of just three teams to knock off UNCG in conference play, as they were joined by East Tennessee State and Chattanooga in that respect.
It will mark the first-ever meeting between the Bears and Antelopes on the college basketabll hardwood. The only common foe between the two programs this season is Florida A&M, with the Antelopes scoring a 67-51 win over the Rattlers, while the Bears posted an 82-64 win over FAMU.
The Bears were the fourth seed in the Southern Conference Tournament and were knocked out of the league tournament a little less than two weeks ago, with a 73-53 loss to No. 5 seed Wofford.
GCU (22-11, 9-5 WAC ), a member of the WAC Conference, is under the direction of former Phoenix Suns legendary long-range shooter “Thunder” Dan Majerle, who is in his fifth year at the helm of the basketball program, and has led the Antelopes to 44 wins in the past couple of seasons, and is quickly building GCU into a force to be reckoned with in the Western Athletic Conference, leading the Antelopes to an appearance in the WAC Tournament title game as the No. 3 seed before eventually losing to top-seeded New Mexico State, 72-58, in the title game.
The Antelopes are in just their fifth season as an NCAA Division I program, completing the four-year transitional period last season. GCU is quickly trying to establish itself as a mid-major juggernaut, and it is doing it with raucous crowds inside the 7,200-seat GCU Arena.
The Bears come in veterans of postseason basketball under head coach Bob Hoffman. Of course, no one will forget the Bears’ 78-71 triumph over Duke in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, but the Bears have won games in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, National Invitational Tournament and the CBI since 2012.
In fact, the Bears were winners of a school-record 27 games in 2012 and claimed the CIT Tournament title with a 70-67 win in Logan, UT at Utah State back in 2012. It was a tough environment that Stu Morrow had built at Utah State to say the least, who had won 100 of their previous 106 games on its home floor, however, Hoffman’s Bears didn’t flinch in coming away with the three-point championship win.
Two years later, the Bears would match those 27 wins from 2012, which included the big win over Duke and an Atlantic Sun tournament title.
Sandwiched in-between was an appearance in the 2013 NIT, where the Bears defeated Tennessee, 75-67, before losing on the road at Brigham Young, 90-71, a couple of days later in Provo, UT. Since 2012, Mercer has won at least 19 games in five out of the past six seasons, and that is what will be at stake Wednesday night.
The Bears are competing in their sixth postseason tournament in the past seven seasons. The Bears also claimed a 72-70 win over Stony Brook in the 2015 CBI before bowing out of the tournament with a 71-69 home loss to Louisiana-Monroe.
GCU on the other hand has won 20 or more games in four of the past six seasons. The Antelopes are in many ways a program that looking to build prestige quickly as a one of the new kids on the block in mid-major basketball.
Matchups To Watch:
Mercer has been without its top scorer Ria’n Holland for the last month, but despite missing him in the lineup, Mercer has reeled off eight wins in its past nine games, including entering the Southern Conference Tournament as winners of eight-straight.
The Bears have a talented backcourt, with versatility being its main strength. The shooting of Ross Cummings (8.1 PPG, 1.5 RPG), combined with the quickness of Jordan Strawberry (11.1 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 156 assists) and the overall athleticism of 6-8 guard Demetre Rivers (11.0 PPG, 3.6 RPG) makes the Bears especially tough to guard. Strawberry’s father, who is Hall of Fame Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Darryl Strawberry, did make an appearance at the Southern Conference Tournament in Mercer’s game against Wofford, and will be interesting to see if he is in Phoenix to see his son play Wednesday night.
Cummings is the best perimeter threat for the Bears, as he comes in having connected on 42% (49-of-117) from long range this season, however, after scoring in double figures in nine-straight games, was held to a combined five points in his final two games of the season against Wofford.
The Antelopes counter with a talented backcourt of their own, which features talented backcourt mates and senior tandem Joshua Braun (11.8 PPG, 3.8 RPG) and Casey Benson (9.5 PPG, 4.1 RPG ). Both have been efficient leaders for GCU this season, and have been pillars of the foundation of success this season for the Antelopes. Benson, who transferred from Oregon, ranks third on the team in made three-pointers this season, with 37 made triples and leads the team with 145 assists.
In the frontcourt for the Bears, keep an eye on South Carolina transfer Desmond Ringer (9.1 PPG, 5.4 RPG) and all-conference performer and veteran Stephon Jelks (9.9 PPG, 7.3 RPG). Jelks is the type player that can beat a team inside or can step outside and connect on the three. He is tremendous at crashing the boards for the Bears and is the heart and soul of this Mercer team. The Bears have five players that have made at least 44 triples this season.
Countering the Bears in the paint for the Antelopes will be the big Italian Alessandro Lever (12.2 PPG, 4.5 RPG), who leads the Antelopes in scoring, and he will joined by 6-7 sophomore Oscar Freyer (9.6 PPG, 5.3 RPG) and Keonta Vernon (8.8 PPG, 6.7 RPG). Both Freyer and Vernon are athletic, while Lever possesses a typical European basketball acumen, which means he compensates for a sometimes perceived lack of athleticism for overall basketball intelligence.
Who Wins:
GCU 82, Mercer 74
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