Greenville, S.C. – The Furman women's basketball team snapped Mercer's 34-game SoCon regular season winning streak on Thursday evening as the Paladins opened conference play with a 62-49 victory over the Bears inside Timmons Arena.
Furman improves to 10-5 overall and 1-0 in the conference while Mercer drops to 3-13 on the season and 0-1 in league play.
Le'Jzae Davidson led three Paladins in double figures with 15 points and seven rebounds.
Tierra Hodges compiled her fourth straight double-double, and team-leading eighth of the season, on 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Celena Taborn finished 7-of-8 shooting for 14 points.
Lindsey Taylor came off the bench to register eight points and five rebounds.
Milica Manojlovic contributed eight points, seven assists (ties career-high) and three steals.
Amoria Neal-Tysor scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Bears offensively while Shannon Titus and Jaron Dougherty both had 12 points. Titus also collected four steals and Tia Benvenuti dished out seven assists. Jill Harris led the team with six rebounds and tallied five assists.
Mercer opened the game on a 9-0 run before Furman responded with seven straight points to trail 9-7 at the 2:53 mark on a 3-pointer by Manojlovic. The Paladins closed out the first quarter on a 12-4 run that spanned over six minutes of play. Furman got as close as one point over the final 1:29 and was down 13-12 at the end of the period.
The Paladins took their first lead of the game with 9:04 remaining in the second quarter when Hodges' layup gave them a 14-13 advantage. After Neal-Tysor put the Bears in front 17-15 at the 7:39 mark, Furman would respond with a 12-1 run over the next 4:58 and took its largest lead of the half, 27-18, with 1:48 left after Taborn's layup. Hodges sent the Paladins into halftime leading 29-20 following her layup with 47 seconds left before intermission.
Taborn and Davidson combined to give Furman a 34-22 lead to start the second half. Davidson's triple at the 8:49 mark extended the Paladins' lead out to 12 points. Mercer responded with a 12-4 run over the following 4:48 and cut its deficit down to 38-34 with four minutes to go. Taylor came back to score three consecutive points to push Furman's lead back out to 41-34. Following Summer Pahl's jumper for the Bears, neither team scored for the last 2:05 as the Paladins held a 41-36 lead heading to the fourth quarter.
Mercer got as close as six points twice in the final period starting at 44-38 with 9:02 left. Furman would then push its lead out to 11 points twice over the next six minutes. Manojlovic knocked down a 3-pointer with 5:38 left to give the Paladins a 51-40 advantage and Hodges followed at the 3:41 mark as her layup made the score 53-42. After the Bears trimmed the score down to 53-47 with 1:41 remaining, the Paladins closed out the game at the free throw line. Davidson and Manojlovic combined to go 9-of-10 at the charity stripe to give Furman its largest lead of the game at 62-47.
The Paladins concluded the game shooting 45.5 percent (20-of-44) from the field and limited the Bears to just 1-of-12 (8.3 percent) behind the 3-point line. Furman also led 37-34 in rebounding.
The Paladins held a 30-18 advantage in points in the paint and 12-7 in points off turnovers.
Furman returns to Bon Secours Wellness Arena for the first time since the 2000-01 season on Saturday afternoon as it hosts Samford at 4:30 p.m. during "Weekends at the Well" presented by Ingles and Healthy Blue.
