JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Feb. 26, 2025) – Wednesday night demanded supreme toughness, locked-in defense, and timely shot making. In the end, both teams had all three – but ETSU had one more timely shot than Mercer.
ETSU defeated Mercer in a back-and-forth home finale, 59-58, in front of a crowd of more than 4,800 at Freedom Hall on Wednesday. Quimari Peterson led the Bucs with 15 points on his senior night, including 12 in the second half and the game-winning three point shot with 55 seconds left.
Allen Strothers scored seven of the Buccaneers (18-12, 11-6) first eight points. The Bucs needed 1:48 to score when Strothers rose and hit a 10-foot jumper in the paint. Strothers hit a three with 16:09 to go to cut a four-point lead for the Bears (12-17, 5-11) to one, and broke a 6-6 tie with 15:35 to go with a fadeaway from the left side, and Jaden Seymour tacked on a tough jumper in traffic to put ETSU up 10-6 at the first media timeout.
Alex Holt gave Mercer the lead back at 11:10 with a long jumper followed by a layup off a steal. Maki Johnson gave the Bucs the lead back at the free throw line, then hit a pair of threes another to give the Bucs their largest lead, 21-15, with 9:50 left in the first half, before a Karon Boyd putback forced Mercer to call timeout with 8:53 left while the Buccaneers were on a 13-4 run. Mercer retook the lead at 28-26 with 2:14 left in the session when Ahmad Robinson made two contested jumpers inside 10 feet to send the Bears on a 7-0 run, and they took a 31-28 lead into halftime.
Mercer stretched its lead to all the way out to seven points at 45-38 on a three from Tyler Johnson before Gabe Sisk banked in a three at the shot clock horn to get the Bucs back to within four with 10:46 left to kick-start a 10-0 run. Sisk found Peterson in transition with 9:08 left on a bounce pass for a layup to cut it back to one possession, and Peterson hit a three on the next possession to give the Bucs a 46-45 lead with 8:30 left. Boyd then hit a layup at the shot clock horn to put ETSU up three, and Strothers lobbed an alley-oop in the perfect spot for Boyd to finish it and stretch the lead to 50-45 with 6:18 to go.
Mercer had a counter-punch. Tyler Johnson stopped a 14-3 run with a three for Mercer that was answered immediately by a thunderous slam from Seymour off a lob by Johnson to get the Bucs up 52-48 with 5:07 to play. Cam Bryant drained a three in front of the student section to give Mercer the lead back at 53-52, a lead they carried to the final media timeout with 3:07 to go.
Seymour scored on a tough scoop shot out of the timeout to take the lead back, then Mercer retook the lead on a contested jumper from Robinson. DJ Hughes threw down a two-handed dunk to put the Bucs up one, and Robinson hit a three to give Mercer a two point lead with 1:11 left. On the next possession, Peterson hit a massive three to get the Bucs ahead with 51 seconds to play, and the Bucs walled up to deny Robinson a clean look a the rim. With 6.1 seconds left, the Bears had the ball with a chance to steal the win, but Robinson couldn’t hit a left-side runner, and ETSU held on.
Johnson scored 11 points and had five rebounds and two assists off the bench in 24 minutes. Strothers finished the night with seven points, three rebounds, five assists, and four steals. Boyd and Seymour each produced nine points, seven rebounds, and two blocked shots. As a team, the Bucs won rebounding, 40-36, and had 14 steals, tied for their most against a Division I opponent this season.
The Bucs close their 2024-25 regular season at The Citadel on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
