MACON, Ga. -- The Samford men's basketball team dropped an 88-84 decision at Mercer Saturday afternoon at Hawkins Arena.
 
With the loss, Samford fell to 23-4 overall and 12-2 in Southern Conference play. Mercer improved to 12-15 overall and 5-9 in league action.
 
"Mercer played really well," Samford head coach Bucky McMillan said. "We didn't play good enough defense to win. They scored on 70 percent of their shots in the second half, and on the eight shots they missed, they rebounded four of them. Defense travels and rebounding travels and we didn't bring that part to the game today. You're going to have nights on offense when it's not your best night, but we've got to be able to stop people."
 
Samford was led in the loss by Achor Achor with 20 points and nine rebounds. Rylan Jones scored 19 points, while A.J. Staton-McCray had 14 points and Jermaine Marshall added 11 points.
 
For Mercer, Jalyn McCreary led the way with 27 points. David Thomas tallied 19 points and seven assists for the Bears, while Alex Holt had 16 points and eight rebounds.
 
Samford jumped out to an early 10-3 lead with 16:21 to go in the first half after a layup by Staton-McCray. Mercer fought back to take a 15-14 lead with 13:10 remaining in the first half following a layup by Caleb Hunter. The Bulldogs answered by taking a 19-16 lead with 12:40 left in the half after a layup by Garrett Hicks.
 
The lead went back and forth over the next several minutes until Samford was able to take a five-point lead at 32-27 with 5:54 left before halftime after a layup by Achor. Mercer came back to cut the lead to two points at 40-38 heading into the locker room at halftime.
 
Samford stretched its lead to five points at 45-40 with 19:14 left in the game after a three-pointer by Jones. Mercer answered with a 14-0 run to take a 54-45 lead at the 14:00 mark after a layup by McCreary. Samford fought back to cut the lead to three points at 56-53 with 12:22 to go after a three-pointer by Jermaine Marshall. The Bears pushed the lead back to nine points at 64-55 with 9:45 to go after a pair of free throws by Thomas.
 
Samford came back to cut the lead to one point at 68-67 with 6:44 to go after two free throws by Nathan Johnson. With Mercer leading, 70-69, the Bears went on a 7-0 run to push their lead back to eight points at 77-69 with 5:18 remaining after a three-pointer by Thomas. The Bulldogs fought back to close to within two points at 86-84 with 31 seconds left, but Samford could get no closer as the Bulldogs fell by a score of 88-84.
 
Samford will next play host to Furman on Wednesday, Feb. 21. The game is set for a 6:30 p.m. start from the Pete Hanna Center.


 
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