Cullowhee, N.C. – Grace Pack led four Catamounts in double figures with a career-high 21 points as Western Carolina dropped its Southern Conference opener on Thursday night, falling to the Mercer Bears 84-75.
WCU posted its highest scoring total against an NCAA Division I team this season with 75 in its league opener. However, the Bears came away with the victory in Cullowhee after posting a 52-point second half, erasing a seven-point Catamount halftime lead and an eight-point third-quarter deficit to win their sixth straight.
Pack led the Catamounts in their strongest offensive performance to date, shooting 7-of-10 from the floor with a pair of made 3-pointers on the way to her career-best 21 points. Ally Hollifield and Tina Bowers went for 15 and 11 points, respectively, in their SoCon debuts, while Taj Hunter netted 14 points, the most in a conference matchup in the sophomore's young career. Hollifield nearly posted a triple-double, dishing out eight assists and eight rebounds –both game highs— to go along with her point total, nearly playing all 40 minutes.
Ariana Bennet led five Bears in double figures with an 18-point effort and was followed in scoring order by Rania Curry with 15 points off the bench. Talia Kemp scored 14, with Nahawa Diarra and Abigail Holtman both chipping in 13. Kemp led the team in assists, dishing out three, while Curry and Diarra led in rebounding with seven and six boards, respectively.
The Catamounts (3-12, SoCon 0-1) remain at home on Saturday to face the Samford Bulldogs (7-11, SoCon 0-1), who fell in their conference opener at UNC Greensboro Spartans (11-5, SoCon 1-0). Mercer (11-5, SoCon 1-0) visits those same Spartans on Saturday.
How it Happened:
Neither team efficiently opened conference play, with the first points of the night coming over 90 seconds into the game. Mercer claimed a brief 2-0 lead before Grace Pack evened the score 10 seconds later. The two squads jockeyed back and forth for much of the opening frame with buckets in transition before the Catamounts took a four-point advantage with 4:20 in the quarter.
Mercer responded, taking a 13-12 lead before Taj Hunter scored three points in the final minute to give WCU the 15-13 advantage after one.
Pack opened the second quarter with the first made 3-pointer of the night for either team, but was quickly answered by a Mercer longball by Abby Holtman on the ensuing possession. A 5-0 sprint by the Catamounts – including a 3-pointer by Tina Bowers – gave WCU its largest lead of the night at that point, but Mercer chipped away at the deficit to knot the game at 23-all.
The two teams again traded blows down the stretch of the frame, but a 9-2 finish to the half in WCU's favor gave the Catamounts a 39-32 lead at the break, their largest halftime lead over a DI team of the season.
Mercer steadily chipped away at the deficit throughout much of the third quarter, though the Catamounts responded to keep the Bears at arm's length throughout the frame. Holtman tied the game at 52 with 2:43 in the third, with Mercer closing on a 7-4 run to carry a 60-56 lead into the final 10 minutes.
The Bears quickly leveraged that four-point lead into a 14-point advantage, taking a 71-57 lead over the Catamounts with 5:38 to go in regulation. WCU trimmed that lead to under 10 with 3:09 to play, pulling as close as 5 points in the final minute, but Mercer converted 5-of-6 from the charity stripe to take the 84-75 win.
By the Numbers:
Turnovers plagued the Catamounts in the conference opener, with the Bears scoring 38 points on WCU's 23 turnovers, tied for the fourth-most giveaways in a game this season for the Catamounts. It's also the ninth game this season with at least 20 turnovers.
The WCU-Mercer game proved to be the highest-scoring game in terms of total points on the opening night of SoCon play. The scoreboard was heavily supplemented by free throws, as 54 of the 159 combined points scored – 34%– came from the charity stripe. Over a third of Mercer's point total came from the free throw line, as the Bears collected 30 points on 38 tries from the line.
Up Next for The Catamounts:
WCU is back at home to host the Samford Bulldogs for a 2 p.m. contest on Saturday, Jan. 10, in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required). The Catamounts then hit the road for a pair of conference matchups, facing the Wofford Terriers in Spartanburg, S.C., on Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. and the Furman Paladins in Greenville, S.C., on Jan. 17 at 2 p.m.
