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CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Citadel is set to host Mercer inside the friendly confines of McAlister Field House on Wednesday evening at 5 p.m., the Bulldogs' first of two SoCon battles this week.
Wednesday's game will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and will feature Kyle West (play-by-play) and Jason Kempf (analysis) on the call. The game will also be carried on the radio locally on 102.1FM and 1450AM with Luke Mauro, the Voice of the Bulldogs, on the radio call.
In their last time out, the Bulldogs (8-3, 1-3 SoCon) dropped an 87-73 decision at UNCG on Monday evening and were held to their lowest offensive output of the season thus far.
Hayden Brown scored a team-best 14 points and was joined in double figures by
Kaiden Rice (12) and Rudy Fitzgibbons III (11), but The Citadel knocked down just nine of its 33 three-point attempts (27.3 percent), the team's first time not reaching double-digit makes this season.
Rice joined The Citadel's 1,000-point club with his 12 points against the Spartans, becoming the 35th member overall and the fourth to join under Head Coach
Duggar Baucom. The senior has 1,003 career points and 237 career three-point makes, the sixth-most in program history; Rice needs just six more three-pointers to move into the top five on The Citadel's career charts.
The Citadel enjoyed strong production from its bench on Monday night, getting nearly half of its production from non-starters. Fitzgibbons led the bench scorers with 11 points and
Brady Spence and
Derek Webster, Jr. each tallied eight points as the four bench scorers combined for 33 total points, the most by the Bulldogs since the bench scored 41 against Carver on Dec. 9.
Among Division I teams that have played fewer than 12 games, The Citadel leads the nation in both three-point makes (150) and attempts (360) per game. The 360 attempts are 31 more than the next closest team in the category (Saint Joseph's), while the 150 makes are an impressive 51 more than Marshall.
Mercer (8-4, 1-3 SoCon), is coming off a narrow 78-76 win over Western Carolina in its most recent contest last Saturday, snapping a three-game losing streak to open SoCon play; the Bears previously fell to Wofford, Furman and Chattanooga. In the non-conference portion of Mercer's schedule, the Bears picked up a marquee victory over Power 5 in-state for Georgia Tech, knocking off the Yellow Jackets, 83-73, on the road on Nov. 27.
The Bears sport four of their five regular starters in double figures, with a fifth player joining the group off the bench. Ross Cummings is the team's leader at 15.7 points per game, and Neftali Alvarez (13.8), Maciej Bender (12.6), Felipe Haase (12.3) and Leon Ayers III (12.3) round out the group for the high-scoring Bears, who average 81.2 points per game as a team.
Haase stands out as the team's leading rebounder at 9.4 boards per game, nearly a quarter of the team's total. Alvarez has dished out a team-best 50 assists, but both Jeff Gary (45) and Haase (42) have also recorded at least 40 helpers in 2020-21. On the defensive end, Bender has swatted away 21 shots to lead Mercer on the year.
Wednesday's bout will be only the 26th all-time between the Bulldogs and Bears. The modern series between the two sides did not begin until Mercer became a SoCon member prior to the 2014-15 campaign, but the Bears own an 18-7 advantage in the previous 25 meetings. The Citadel claimed three of the four meetings during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, but dropped both games last season as the 'Dogs dealt with numerous injuries throughout conference play.
Following Wednesday's bout with Mercer, The Citadel will hit the road for its longest road trip of the season as the Bulldogs head west to take on Samford in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. (ET). The 'Dogs will be looking to even the all-time series against Samford at 13-13 with a victory.
