The Lady Bucs were not at their best on Thursday when they returned home after a hard loss on the road against Belmont. They played the Lady Bears of Mercer who were in the midst of a rough patch themselves, losing five of their last six games, putting them 8-8 in Atlantic Sun play. Mercer beat the ETSU Bucs at their previous meeting in January, when the Bucs fell 61-57.
With revenge as their motivator, ETSU should have had a lot to play for in the Dome.
They got off to a good start; leading 13-5 after six minutes of play, but soon after the Bucs fell into a scoring rut.
The Lady Bucs struggled with just about every aspect of the game for the remainder of the half. They couldn’t seem to get shots to fall from anywhere on the court. They shot a disappointing nine of 20 from the field, only 30 percent.
Foul shots weren’t any easier for the Bucs to make either, since they made none of their six attempted free throws.
ETSU’s only saving grace in the first half was that the Lady Bears seemed to struggle just as much as they did. Mercer did achieve a better field goal percentage than the Bucs, but only barely, making 31.3 percent of their shots. Their higher percentage allowed them to head to the locker room at half time leading 20-21.
Following a largely unenergetic first half, during which the Lady Bucs scored a season-low of 20 points, they came out of half time eager to right their ship.
The lead seesawed back and forth for the first few minutes of the half, but the Bucs pulled away after several minutes of intense battling. Their efforts in the second half led to much more effective play on both the defensive and offensive ends.
In addition to playing more cohesive as a team, individual players also stepped up their games. Kelly Turman came up big for the Bucs, scoring 14 points in her 34 minutes of play. She commented on what helped the Lady Bucs most in the second half, “I’d say just us taking shots,” Turman said. “Usually, if you keep taking shots, they’ll fall at least once in awhile. I think that’s what brought us back tonight.”
B.J. Banjo stepped up in the second half as well, ending the game with 21 points. “These are some of our last home games, especially some of my last home games,” Banjo said. “We just knew we had to step it up in the second half.”
Obviously they played their strategy well, because ETSU came up with the win.
They beat Mercer 62-47, which makes their record in the A-Sun 12-5.
The Bucs will play their last home game on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 2 p.m.

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