Mercer plays East Tennessee State in conference showdown

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East Tennessee State Buccaneers (15-12, 8-4 SoCon) at Mercer Bears (16-11, 6-6 SoCon)

Macon, Georgia; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Nahawa Diarra Berthe and Mercer host Meghan Downing and East Tennessee State in SoCon action.

The Bears have gone 8-3 in home games. Mercer is fourth in the SoCon scoring 64.4 points while shooting 38.1% from the field.

The Buccaneers are 8-4 against SoCon opponents. East Tennessee State ranks eighth in the SoCon with 9.7 assists per game led by Anala Nelson averaging 2.6.

Mercer averages 64.4 points, 6.8 more per game than the 57.6 East Tennessee State gives up. East Tennessee State's 35.2% shooting percentage from the field this season is 4.4 percentage points lower than Mercer has given up to its opponents (39.6%).

The teams meet for the second time in conference play this season. Mercer won 50-45 in the last matchup on Feb. 11. Ariana Bennett led Mercer with 12 points, and Carmen Richardson led East Tennessee State with 12 points.

TOP PERFORMERS: Diarra Berthe is scoring 11.4 points per game and averaging 5.2 rebounds for the Bears. Abby Holtman is averaging 1.7 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

Nelson is averaging 11 points for the Buccaneers. Daniela Lopez is averaging 10.2 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Bears: 5-5, averaging 61.2 points, 29.2 rebounds, 10.8 assists, 9.5 steals and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 36.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.3 points per game.

Buccaneers: 8-2, averaging 58.2 points, 32.2 rebounds, 10.9 assists, 5.8 steals and 3.7 blocks per game while shooting 38.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 53.7 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.