Providence College Athletics

Mercer Beats Bryant 80-56 In World Vision Invitational

11/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Nov. 14, 2009

Final Stats

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The inaugural 2009 World Vision Invitational began the second day of play on Saturday at the Dunkin' Donuts Center with a familiar theme, a Mercer victory. The Bears raced out to an 18-2 lead and never looked back en route to an 80-56 win over Bryant in the third matchup of the six-game, three-day, round-robin tournament. Bears senior guard E.J. Kusnyer scored a game-high 22 points, including six 3-pointers to lead all scorers.

Mercer (2-0) used an 11-0 run to start the game, before Bryant (0-2) scored its first basket with 15:57 left in the first half. The Bears extended the lead to as many as 31 in the first half (45-14 with 1:51 left in the frame) before settling on a 45-21 advantage at the intermission. Mercer converted 11 Bryant first-half turnovers into 23 points helping fuel the attack.

The Bears led by as many as 30 in the second half, 57-27 with 16:23 left in the game, before Bryant went on a 17-6 run to cut it to 19 (63-44) with 12:00 left in the contest, but that would be as close as the Bulldogs would get.

Mercer senior guard James Florence, who scored a game-high 33 points Friday against Bucknell, scored just 14 points, but was again efficient from the floor making 5-of-11 attempts. Senior forward and teammate Daniel Emerson added 16 points and eight rebounds to round out the Mercer offense. No Bears player went more than 28 minutes.

Bryant was led by senior forward Cecil Gresham who scored a team-best 17 points.

Mercer held a 40-25 edge on the glass and held Bryant to just six offensive rebounds. The Bears also were a respectable 16-of-21 from the free throw line (76.2 percent) while Bryant went 5-of-7 (71.4 percent) from the charity stripe.

Both teams return to action on Sunday in Day Three of the World Vision Invitational. Bryant will face Bucknell at 12 p.m. while Mercer will take on host Providence at 2:30 p.m. Both games will take place at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, R.I.

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