‘New Seasons’ Begin for Basketball as Teams Head to Music City
The seasons start anew for Mercer’s basketball teams as the Atlantic Sun Conference converges on Nashville this week for the 2009 General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Basketball Championships, held at the campus of Lipscomb University.
The Mercer women’s team, with a 12-8 conference record and 16-13 overall, earned the fourth seed in the tourney and will open play Thursday, March 5, at 1 p.m. (EST) against fifth-seeded Stetson. Coach Janell Jones’ squad finished the regular season strong on Saturday with a 90-79 win over East Tennessee State University, the tournament’s number one seed, at Johnson City.
The winner of the Mercer-Stetson game will advance to the semi-finals on Friday at 1 p.m. against No. 1 East Tennessee State University, with the winner of that game playing in the championship game Saturday at 1 p.m.
All the women’s games are available for viewing, via live video streaming, on A-Sun TV, accessible from the conference web site, www.atlanticsun.org.
Since his arrival last year, men’s head coach Bob Hoffman has said his team’s goal is to win just three games – the three games in the conference tournament – and now is the Bears’ opportunity. If the team wins the tournament, it will earn the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
The Bears, seeded sixth after finishing the regular season in a tie with Campbell, will face off against defending champion Belmont, the No. 3 seed, at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. Mercer finished the regular season 17-14 overall and 11-9 in conference play. Belmont dropped a two-point game to Jacksonville on Saturday that determined the regular season champion and for the right to enter the tourney as the No. 1 seed.
The winner of the Mercer-Belmont game will play the winner of the ETSU-Stetson game on Friday at 7 p.m. and that winner will earn a berth – and a spot on national television – in the championship game on Saturday at 6 p.m. All games can be viewed on A-Sun TV or the play-by-play can be heard on Macon radio station, 105.5 FM The Fan, and via live audio streaming on Mercerbears.com. Saturday’s championship game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
