Mercer snaps ETSU women's win streak

JOHNSON CITY — The East Tennessee State women's basketball team suffered from a cold-shooting, low-scoring first half in a 50-45 loss to Mercer on Tuesday night at Brooks Gyam. ETSU made just six field goals and scored just 15 points in the first half of the game rescheduled from Feb. 1 at Brooks Gym. The Lady Bucs, who fell to 12-12 overall and 5-4 in the Southern Conference, saw their win streak stopped at five games. They were able to stay close through its trademark tenacious defense. But, Mercer matched the intensity throughout the game and held ETSU to 16-of-58 from the field (27.6 percent). The Lady Bears improved to 15-9 overall and 5-4 in the Southern Conference. "We didn't execute as well as we should have," ETSU coach Brenda Mock Brown said. "We put our players in great positions, but the shots weren't falling." Carmen Richardson led ETSU with 12 points and Jaidyn Harper had 10. Meghan Downing finished with eight points and rebounds, while Anala Nelson also scored eight points, but was 1-for-8 from the field. ETSU opened the game with a 6-2 lead, but Mercer scored the next 11 points. The Bears held a 17-8 lead at the end of one quarter, and pushed the lead to 28-15 at halftime. The Bucs went 6-of-27 from the field and 1-of-8 behind the 3-point line in the first half. ETSU had four more turnovers (10) than made shots in the first 20 minutes. ETSU's offense came alive in the third quarter, scoring 16 points to cut the lead to 38-31 at the end of the period. Nelson hit a free throw with 0.2 seconds left on the clock. It was a defensive struggle the first part of the final quarter as Harper closed the Bucs within four points, 40-36, before a timeout with 4:08 remaining. Richardson cut it to three points on an old-fashioned, 3-point play a minute later. After back-to-back layups by Mercer's Ariana Bennett, ETSU's Harper cut it back to three again, banking in a 3-point shot at the 1:05 mark. She scored on a second-chance layup with 26 seconds left to make it a one-possession game once again. Harper wasn't able to convert a third time, missing a game-tying, 3-point shot with seven seconds left. Bennett was Mercer's leading scorer with 12 points. Rania Curry, who hit a pair of game-clinching free throws, ended with nine. Mock Brown was pleased with how her team battled back to have a chance at the end. "That's the way our team is built," she said. "We have some scoring issues. When you hold a team to 50 points, you should be able to score 51. We've done that the past five games. This loss isn't going to define us. We've got to bounce back and look forward to Chatt." NEXT UP The ETSU men's home game with Chattanooga on Wednesday night 7 p.m. will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network. The ETSU women return to action Saturday 2 p.m. at Chattanooga.