Macon, Ga. -- Darious Moten paced three Mercer players in double figures with 16 points and Ike Nwamu connected on 3-of-4 free throws in the final 23.3 seconds as the Bears escaped with a 67-64 victory over Furman on Thursday night at Hawkins Arena in Macon, Ga.

Furman's Stephen Croone hit a pair of free throws with 23.3 seconds left to cut the Mercer lead to 63-62 and the Paladins fouled on the inbounds pass.  After Nwamu matched Croone with a pair of free throws to push the margin back to three points, Jibri Bryan blocked Geoff Beans' three-pointer from the left corner and drew a foul on the rebound with under 11 second remaining.

Bryan hit 1-of-2 free throws and Nwamu sealed the game by making 1-of-2 with 2.9 seconds left following Croone's three-point miss on the opposite end.

The loss dropped Furman to 4-12 overall and 2-4 in the Southern Conference, while Mercer improved to 10-9 overall and 5-1 in league play.

Moten made 6-of-6 shots to pace the Bears with 16 points and five rebounds.  T.J. Hallice and Nwamu contributed 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the Bears, who shot 58.5% from the field and connected on 60% of their second half field goal attempts.  Mercer managed a 29-15 edge in rebounding that led to a 15-5 advantage in second-chance points.

Furman's Devin Sibley poured in a game-high 21 points to match his career-high.  The Knoxville, Tenn., native was 7-for-9 from the field, including 4-for-4 from three-point range and 3-for-3 at the charity stripe.  Croone added 15 points, while sophomore Kris Acox totaled nine points and six rebounds.

The Paladins shot 50% from the field, made 9-of-22 three-point attempts and committed a season-low seven turnovers.

Mercer hit six of its first seven shots to jump out to a 16-4 lead and extended the margin to 14 points before Furman rallied to trim the deficit to 36-29 at the break.  Furman trimmed the margin to two points with 12:01 left on the strength of a 6-0 run.  Croone tied the game at 57-57 on a trey with 4:22 to go, but the Bears held Furman to just two field goals the rest of the way and scored on their next three possessions to claim the win.

Furman continues its three-game SoCon road trip on Saturday when it travels to Charleston, S.C., to face The Citadel Bulldogs.  Tip-off is slated for 1 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on the SoCon Digital Network.  Saturday's games can be heard on the Furman IMG Sports Network on flagship station WGOG 96.3 FM and Fox Sports 1440 AM with play-by-play voice Dan Scott and color commentator Ron Smith.  The audio broadcast will also be available by logging onto TuneIn.com.  Links for the broadcast and live statistics will be available at FurmanPaladins.com.


Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information