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HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – On Thursday night, the man known as “Bear” around Northern Kentucky University made life miserable for an opposing team with the same nickname.
Eshaunte “Bear” Jones poured in a career-high 26 points to lead Northern Kentucky to a 63-46 win over the visiting Mercer Bears in The Bank of Kentucky Center. Jones finished 6-for-8 from 3-point range as Northern Kentucky improved to 5-11 overall, 3-5 in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
The senior guard also grabbed six rebounds as the Norse knocked off the Atlantic Sun Conference preseason favorite in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
Ethan Faulkner and
Chad Jackson each added 12 points for Northern Kentucky, which held Mercer to 34.9 percent shooting from the field. Bud Thomas led the Bears with 16 points.
Mercer (12-9 overall, 5-3 A-Sun) won at Florida State, 61-56, on Dec. 2, and the Bears also own a 66-59 victory over Alabama – the same Crimson Tide squad that defeated Kentucky earlier this week.
NKU head coach
Dave Bezold laughed when asked if he could lay claim to his team being better than UK.
“It's all about matchups,” said Bezold. “We matched up pretty good here. Now would we match up the same way with Kentucky? I don't think so because they have a little more athleticism and size, but it's fun to do that. (Mercer) just beat tremendous teams and we were able to handle them here at home so it's a nice confidence boost.”
NKU had lost its last two games on the road at Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast, but won its second straight game at home by double figures after beating Lipscomb, 67-53, on Jan. 11.
The Norse held Mercer without a field goal for the final 6:12 of the first half to go on a 14-6 run and close the half on top 26-18. NKU never led by less than five in the second half.
Jones - averaging 13.8 points per contest entering Thursday night - started for the first time in the last seven games. He scored 14 of NKU's final 22 points of the first half, making four treys before the break.
“That decision to start him happened when we were coming out during the last 10 minutes before warming up,” said Bezold. “I thought, 'This is a senior, we need a pick-me up.' Bear had tremendous focus in the last couple of practices and you need to go with upperclassman this time of year.”
Jones continued his hot shooting in the second half and finished the game 7-for-11 from the field overall, but after accounting for more than half of NKU's points in the first half, he received help in the second half from Jackson, Faulkner and freshman forward
Jack Flournoy.
Jackson scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half; Faulkner had nine of his 12 after halftime and Flournoy made two 3-pointers roughly two minutes apart in the final five minutes.
They helped squelch a Mercer rally in which it got within 49-43 with 4:05 remaining. Jackson answered with a conventional three-point play, then two free throws and Flournoy made the second of his 3-pointers.
“That's how our team is built is for different people to score points,” said Jones. “It's huge for everyone to contribute. This was a huge win for our team and we just need to keep rolling off of it.”
Jones' previous career-high point total was 25, which he scored last season against Ohio Midwestern. He played 37 minutes Thursday night and hit all six of his free-throw attempts.
Despite having a clear size advantage with players 6-11, 6-10 and 6-9 and NKU having no players taller than 6-7 and only two taller than 6-5, Mercer scored just eight points in the paint and had just four second-chance points in the game.
“I thought our focus was pretty good for 40 minutes,” said Bezold. “What was different from the last two ballgames was we didn't have any extended lapses where we weren't positioned properly defensively. Big guys don't like smaller guys guarding them. The first half they didn't knock down jump shots and maybe if they do we panic, but we did a good job choking the middle on them. I thought we had some quickness to offset that.
“It's not easy for guys 6-5, 6-6 to guard 6-10, 6-11, because if you miss your angle one time on one pass you'll give up a layup. We didn't allow that.”
Mercer shot just 1-for-11 from 3-point range in the first half and finished 6-for-21 for the game, but only because junior forward Bud Thomas made three straight treys in a span of 1:26, the last of which cut the NKU lead to 49-43.
Mercer won the CollegeInsider.com tournament a year ago, becoming the first A-Sun men's basketball team to win a postseason championship. The Bears defeated Tennessee State, Georgia State, Old Dominion, Fairfield and Utah State to claim the title and finish with a 27-11 record.
NKU plays host to Kennesaw State in the 2013 Homecoming game at 7 p.m. Saturday in The Bank of Kentucky Center. The Norse hold a 1-0 lead in the all-time series with the Owls, the only previous meeting a 78-65 NKU victory on Nov. 7, 2003, at the Disney Tipoff Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
(Special thanks to The Enquirer's Richard Skinner for assisting with this recap)
