NCAA Tournament scores, Mercer vs. Duke: Bears stun Blue Devils, 78-71
Mercer shot an unreal 55 percent from the floor and never yielded in the closing minutes as they upended the No. 3-seeded Blue Devils.
It's called March Madness for a reason, folks. On Friday afternoon, the No. 14 Mercer Bears stunned the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils, 78-71.
With Mercer up 65-63 and just 1:08 on the clock, Langston Hall fired a cross-court pass to Daniel Coursey for an and-one dunk. He converted the free throw to push the Bears up five. All of the momentum in the world was on the Bears' side:
The two teams would take turns exchanging free throws and layups over the next 45 seconds. With Duke down 74-68 and just 13 seconds on the clock, Andre Dawkins' three-point attempt clanked out. Jakob Gollon grabbed the rebound, and the celebration was underway:
Duke seemed to fire up a three-pointer any time there was an inch of space. They would hit 15-of-37 but shot just 35 percent overall from the floor.
Mercer, on the other hand, shot the ball with much higher efficiency at 55 percent. It was a balanced scoring attack with Gollon scoring 20 points and Daniel Coursey dropping 17. White had 13 points, while Langston Hall and Ike Nwamu had 11 each.
With the win, Mercer will face the winner of Friday’s tilt between UMass and Tennessee. Tipoff will come on Sunday afternoon.
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