ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Sydni Means scored 25 points and Mercer opened the fourth quarter with a 12-0 run to pull away from Furman en route to a 64-50 victory Friday morning in Southern Conference Women's Basketball Tournament semifinal action at U.S. Cellular Center.

The win propels the Bears (24-7), the league's regular season co-champion and No. 1 seed, into Sunday's 1:00 p.m. championship game against the winner of Friday's other semifinal, Chattanooga or Samford.

Furman (14-15) was paced by senior two-time All-SoCon forward Holli Wilkins with 18 points.  Wilkins completed her stellar Paladin career with 1,520 points, ranking her fifth in program history.

Leading 43-40 after three periods, Mercer opened the fourth quarter with a Kahlia Lawrence jump shot and a basket and two free throws from Means to go up 49-40 three minutes into the period.  Brittnee Broadway added another jump shot, and Means followed with two more free throws to stretch the advantage to 53-40 midway through the period.  Rachel Selph finished off the decisive 12-0 run with a pair of free throws at the 4:48 mark to stake the Bears to a 55-40 lead.

Nearly two more minutes passed before Wilkins scored Furman's first points of the quarter, on a sharp bank shot under heavy defensive pressure, to make it 55-42.

The Paladins could not dent Mercer's double digit lead the rest of the way.

Furman, which finished the game shooting just 30.9 percent (17-for-55), battled for three periods on the strength of solid 3-point shooting.  The league's top perimeter shooting team this year, Furman made 9-of-25 treys (36.0%) in the contest, but converted 1-of-4 attempts from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter.

The Paladins led 15-12 after one quarter and took a 20-16 lead following an Allison Beasley 3-pointer a little over two minutes into the second period.  From that point, however, Furman went scoreless for almost six minutes before Cierra Carter's two free throws at the 1:59 mark put the Paladin up 22-20 before Mercer scored the last four points of the half to take a 24-22 advantage into intermission.

Lawrence joined Means in double figures with 18 points.

The Bears out-rebounded the Paladins 42-35 and enjoyed a big advantage on both points in the paint (22-8) and second chance points (18-6), made possible by a 16-12 edge in offensive rebounds.

Whitney Bunn and Kelsey Ellis finished with nine points apiece, and Ellis matched her career high with eight rebounds.  The senior guard from Pooler, Ga., completed her Paladin career as a 35.8 percent 3-point shooter (123-of-343).

Hunter Reid, Furman Sports Information