East Tennessee State faces Mercer after King's 42-point showing

Mercer Bears (7-11, 0-5 SoCon) at East Tennessee State Buccaneers (7-11, 3-2 SoCon)

Johnson City, Tennessee; Saturday, 4 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: East Tennessee State plays the Mercer Bears after Jordan King scored 42 points in East Tennessee State's 96-74 win over the Citadel Bulldogs.

The Buccaneers have gone 3-6 at home. East Tennessee State is 4-8 against opponents over .500.

The Bears are 0-5 in SoCon play. Mercer is 2-4 in games decided by less than 4 points.

The matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season between the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Allen Strothers is averaging 4.1 points and 3.3 assists for the Buccaneers. King is averaging 14.1 points and 3.6 rebounds while shooting 36.9% over the last 10 games for East Tennessee State.

Kamar Robertson averages 1.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Bears, scoring 12.5 points while shooting 47.5% from beyond the arc. Jalyn McCreary is shooting 57.2% and averaging 14.6 points over the past 10 games for Mercer.

LAST 10 GAMES: Buccaneers: 3-7, averaging 68.3 points, 32.1 rebounds, 12.5 assists, 6.8 steals and 4.0 blocks per game while shooting 45.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.4 points per game.

Bears: 3-7, averaging 66.9 points, 30.9 rebounds, 13.4 assists, 5.0 steals and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 46.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.4 points.

___

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