Mercer Bears (7-15, 2-5 SoCon) at Samford Bulldogs (7-16, 2-5 SoCon)
Birmingham, Alabama; Saturday, 3 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Samford hosts Mercer after Claire Johnson scored 30 points in Samford's 78-66 loss to the UNC Greensboro Spartans.
The Bulldogs are 5-4 in home games. Samford ranks fourth in the SoCon with 27.9 points per game in the paint led by Emily Bowman averaging 12.0.
The Bears are 2-5 in conference matchups. Mercer ranks eighth in the SoCon shooting 22.4% from 3-point range.
Samford is shooting 40.7% from the field this season, 0.5 percentage points higher than the 40.2% Mercer allows to opponents. Mercer averages 52.3 points per game, 23.1 fewer points than the 75.4 Samford gives up.
The Bulldogs and Bears square off Saturday for the first time in SoCon play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Sadie Stetson is shooting 38.7% from beyond the arc with 2.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Bulldogs, while averaging 7.5 points. Johnson is shooting 47.1% and averaging 12.4 points over the past 10 games.
Kayla Smith averages 1.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Bears, scoring 5.0 points while shooting 24.7% from beyond the arc. Ariana Bennett is averaging 11.7 points over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Bulldogs: 3-7, averaging 67.3 points, 26.4 rebounds, 11.0 assists, 7.2 steals and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting 40.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.2 points per game.
Bears: 3-7, averaging 52.2 points, 22.7 rebounds, 9.6 assists, 5.8 steals and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting 37.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 63.6 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
