FORT MYERS, Fla. — Langston Hall scored 15 points and had seven rebounds and three assists as Mercer earned its first NCAA tournament berth since 1985, leading for all but eight seconds and beating top-seeded Florida Gulf Coast 68-60 in the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship game on Sunday.
Hall, of Chamblee High, was the A-Sun’s regular season MVP and he added tourney MVP honors to his resume.
Teammate Anthony White Jr. matched Hall’s 15 points and Daniel Coursey scored 13 and Jakob Gallon 12 for the second-seeded Bears (26-8), who lost the A-Sun title game at home to the Eagles a year ago, then had to watch FGCU make a run to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament and become known nationally as “Dunk City.”
Hall recalled what he thought at the time: “Man,” he said, “that could have been us.”
It will be Mercer’s time in the tourney this year, after handing FGCU its third home loss in 33 games over the past two seasons.
And Mercer has a reputation for road victories. Over the past three seasons, the Bears have 30 road wins — only three teams nationally have more. “They love road kill,” Mercer coach Bob Hoffman said. “They love to go get it.”
Bernard Thompson of Rockdale County High and Brett Comer scored 14 points each for FGCU (22-12), which got 13 from Chase Fieler and cut a huge second-half deficit from 17 to one but couldn’t get the lead back. Thompson made the all-tourney team.
Leading by as many as 18 points in the first half, Mercer came out stagnant offensively to open the second 20 minutes. It was exactly what FGCU needed in front of a sellout crowd at Alico Arena.
Over a 6½-minute stretch, a 16-point deficit got trimmed to one on a score by Fieler with 8:50 left. After the Eagles missed their first 10 tries from 3-point range, Comer and Filip Cvjeticanin made consecutive tries from beyond the arc, then Comer added a three-point play and Fieler’s basket made it 43-42.
The Bears ripped off the next seven points, needing only 59 seconds to do so, pushing the margin quickly to 50-42.
From there, it was survival time.
Comer had a steal and set up Thompson for a spectacular dunk while getting fouled, getting the Eagles within four again — only to have Gallon answer with one of the biggest shots of the day, a 3-pointer.
And the Bears simply would not lose the lead. Fieler fouled out with just under 3 minutes left, Mercer got just enough stops, and soon the turnabout was complete.
This time, the Bears were the road team cutting down nets and celebrating an NCAA berth as the entire coaching staff surrounded Hoffman in a collective hug.
A year ago, Hoffman predicted that FGCU would win NCAA games. This time, he sees no reason why his club can’t do the same. “We have a great league and it’s underappreciated and it’s unbelievable how it continues to be underappreciated,” he said. “Our teams have to play so many money games. That’s why the records are so bad. But we have great coaches and great players in our league and it was witnessed today.”
Thompson — who became FGCU’s career leading scorer in the game — picked up two fouls in the first 7 minutes, and when Eric McKnight checked out after picking up his second with 9:26 left in the half things changed in a hurry as Mercer went on a 20-2 run.
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