DENVER (AP) - Royce O'Neale scored 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting, grabbed five rebounds and dished out three assists to lead Denver past visiting Mercer on Wednesday night 69-40.
Denver (2-4) led 15-13 with 11:23 to play in the first half after Daniel Coursey hit a lay-up for the Bears, but the Pioneers struck back, outscoring Mercer 18-6 capped by an O'Neale lay-in at the buzzer to make it 33-19 at halftime.
The Pioneers, which ended a four-game losing streak with the win over the Bears, outscored Mercer 36-21 in the second half and shot 54.7 percent from the field including seven 3-pointers and had 19 assists as a team.
Chris Udofia scored 14 points, had four rebounds and three assists for Denver while teammate Brett Olson chipped in with 10 points and four rebounds.
Coursey was the only player in double figures for Mercer (4-5), scoring 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
| Scoreboard | |||
| Final | 1 | 2 | T |
| Mercer (4-5) | 19 | 21 | 40 |
| Denver (2-5) « | 33 | 36 | 69 |
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| Mercer Bears | |||||||
| STARTERS | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| J. Gollon, F | 28 | 2-6 | 2-2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| B. Thomas, F | 25 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| D. Coursey, F | 16 | 5-6 | 1-1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| L. Hall, G | 25 | 3-7 | 0-1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| T. Smith, G | 18 | 1-5 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| BENCH | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| J. Bryan | 18 | 0-4 | 1-2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| K. Canevari | 13 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Smith | 13 | 1-2 | 1-3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| T. Hallice | 11 | 1-1 | 1-3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| M. Brown | 10 | 0-5 | 0-0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| D. Moten | 8 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| A. White Jr. | 7 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| L. Brown | 5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| D. Poston | 3 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Totals | 15-43 | 8-15 | 26 | 7 | 13 | 40 | |
| 34.9% | 53.3% | ||||||
| Denver Pioneers | |||||||
| STARTERS | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| R. O'Neale, F | 35 | 9-14 | 1-1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 22 |
| C. Udofia, F | 31 | 6-10 | 2-3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 14 |
| C. Hallam, G | 32 | 4-7 | 0-0 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| B. Olson, G | 32 | 4-9 | 0-0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
| J. Love, G | 30 | 3-5 | 0-0 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| BENCH | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| C. Griffin | 15 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| B. Foeman | 8 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| M. Byrd | 6 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| N. Engesser | 3 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| J. Logan | 3 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| B. Rucker | 3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Webb | 2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 29-53 | 4-6 | 31 | 19 | 17 | 69 | |
| 54.7% | 66.7% | ||||||
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