Mercer Offense Shows Promise With Wins At Home And On The Road
The Harrodsburg Herald/April Ellis
Senior Wade Lane leads the fast break in the Titans’ 2in over Pendleton County on Dec. 10.
April Ellis
Herald Staff
The Mercer County Senior High School Titans boys basketball team had two big wins this past week against Nelson County at home, 88-67, and on the road in the Mike Murphy Classic where they faced Pendleton County, 81-54.
With a few players out with the flu, the Titans had two teammates step up, or more accurately step outside the 3-point line where they combined for 41 points. Junior Thaddeus Mays had a career-high 22 points and sophomore Andrew Tatum followed closely with his career-high of 19 points. Mercer easily handled the Cardinals to start the first full week of their season strong.
In the off-season, the Titans worked on a faster-paced offense that passed the ball up the floor versus last year’s slow dribble. They hit their stride in the Pendleton County game with their new offense and the Wildcats’ defense was helpless. Mercer has also worked on improving their defensive pressure and it showed, only allowing Pendleton 16 points in the first half.
Mercer wasted very little time in the first quarter establishing the pace of the game. While the Wildcats had the first points on the board, junior Donavan Wright answered back with a 3-point shot to take the lead they kept for the entirety of the game. Junior John Lincoln Perry came into the game and immediately scored. The Wildcats had their offense going for a few trips up the floor, but it was short-lived.
Sophomore Trevor Ellis cleaned up any rebounds to score on a put-back and senior Seth Caton had no issue getting to the basket for two of his own. After being hot Tuesday night, Tatum fired up a three from the corner and hit nothing but net.
Junior Jackson Perry powered through Pendleton’s post players to feed Wright on the breakout, but he was fouled. He sank both his shots from the charity stripe and the Titans lead by six, 14-8, at the end of the first quarter.
Mercer had an 11 point run to start the second quarter. They are at their strongest when they can capitalize off of chaos created by defense.
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