RALEIGH, N.C. — Mercer’s Cinderella story will not have a happy ending. At least not one that sees the 14th-seeded Bears advancing to the Sweet 16.
It’s the 11th-seeded Tennessee Volunteers who will head to the Midwest Regional in Indianapolis next weekend after beating the Bears 83-63 Sunday night at PNC Arena.
“It’s a surreal feeling,” Tennessee junior forward Jarnell Stokes said. “Tennessee basketball was dead. But now we’re back in the Sweet 16. It’s a great feeling.”
Mercer, a private school from Macon, Ga., and the Atlantic Sun Conference, had captured the nation’s imagination after upsetting third-seeded Duke in Raleigh on Friday night. But the Bears couldn’t match the Vols’ size, speed and execution. Mercer was out-rebounded 24-4 at halftime and never could match Tennessee’s physicality.
Junior guard Josh Richardson poured in 26 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Stokes added 17 points and 18 rebounds. Senior guard Antonio Barton also scored 18 for the Volunteers, who will face second-seeded Michigan in the regional semifinals. Mercer ends its season at 27-9 after getting 15 points from Langston Hall.
“Tennessee was tremendous,” Mercer coach Bob Hoffman said. “They did everything right. Richardson was a special player tonight. He hit everything he shot.”
Mercer’s senior-laden roster had no answers for Tennessee, which hurt the Bears inside with Stokes and outside with Richardson and Barton. Richardson had 16 of his total at halftime and had one stretch where he scored 10 straight points.
“I was getting some good looks,” Richardson said. “I think my teammates did a good job of getting the ball.”
The tone of the game was set in the first half, which couldn’t have gone much better for Tennessee (24-12). The Vols entered the break with a 42-27 lead that was never threatened.
Playing their third game in five days, the Vols still had fresh legs and dominated on both ends. Stokes and Jeronne Maymon, two 6-foot-8, 260-pound forwards, battered the Bears inside while Richardson was an offensive force, either slashing for baskets or splashing jump shots from the arc.
Mercer, meanwhile, was missing valuable size from Monty Brown, a 6-11 senior who sat out the game after suffering a concussion against Duke. That left 6-10 center Daniel Coursey to fend off Stokes and Maymon. Coursey got help from 6-6 senior Jakob Gollon, but together they lacked the size and girth to contend with Stokes and Maymon. Tennessee would out-rebound the Bears 41-19 and make 23-of-26 free-throws, compared to 7-of-9 for Mercer.
“I didn’t do a good job of boxing them out,” Coursey said. “We would have had more stops if we could have controlled them on the boards.”
Stokes, who leads the nation with 22 double-doubles, had nine points and nine rebounds at the end of the first half, and continued to impose his will into the second.
When Richardson missed a 3 to start the second half, Stokes grabbed the rebound and scored on a put-back to give the Vols a 44-27 lead.
“We always feel we can control the boards,” Stokes said.
Mercer played uphill the rest of the game. Anthony White tried to rally his team by scoring 11 consecutive points. When he made a jumper with 14:02 remaining, the Bears thought they had a chance, trailing 53-41. But Tennessee continued to hold ground until it pushed ahead on back-to-back buckets by Richardson that gave the Vols a 67-52 lead.
“I thought if we could get the lead below 10 we’d have a chance to win the game,” Hoffman said. “But we weren’t able to put enough pressure on them.”
The teams had played each other in the first round of the NIT last year season, when Mercer beat Tennessee 75-67 in Knoxville. Now, Tennessee is playing with house money, having beaten Iowa in the play-in game early in the week and disposing of UMass, 86-67, on Friday.
“We’re supposed to be here,” Maymon said. “We’re one of the best teams in the country. We’re one of the last 16 standing.”