Furman (14-7, 8-4) vs. Mercer (13-8, 6-7)
Hawkins Arena, Macon, Georgia; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Furman looks for its 12th straight win in the head-to-head series over Mercer. Furman has won by an average of 8 points in its last 11 wins over the Bears. Mercer’s last win in the series came on Jan. 14, 2016, a 69-65 win.
SENIOR STUDS: Mercer’s Felipe Haase, Ross Cummings and Jeff Gary have combined to score 44 percent of the team’s points this season, including 43 percent of all Bears scoring over the last five games.MIGHTY MIKE: Mike Bothwell has connected on 29 percent of the 100 3-pointers he’s attempted and has made 4 of 18 over his last three games. He’s also made 82.2 percent of his free throws this season.
WINNING WHEN: The Bears are 5-0 when they record nine or more steals and 8-8 when they fall shy of that mark. The Paladins are 8-0 when the team blocks at least four shots and 6-7 when they fall short of that total.
ASSIST RATIOS: The Bears have recently created buckets via assists more often than the Paladins. Mercer has 55 assists on 83 field goals (66.3 percent) across its past three outings while Furman has assists on 50 of 82 field goals (61 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: The Furman offense has scored 80.2 points per game this season, ranking the Paladins 29th among Division I teams. The Mercer defense has allowed 73.8 points per game to opponents (ranked 245th overall).
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