MACON, GA. – The UNCG women's basketball team fell behind early and couldn't recover in a conference game Saturday at Mercer, 80-62, at Hawkins Arena.

The Spartans fall to 5-18 and are 0-8 in the SoCon. Mercer improves to 13-11, 5-3 in conference play with the home wire-to-wire win. 

Senior Jarae Savage (Marietta, Ga./North Cobb) had a career day scoring a  career-high 26 points (11-of-23) and a career-best 16 rebounds. Savage finished just three rebounds shy of tying a school record for most rebounds in a single-game.

Junior guard Lucy Mason (Stone Mountain, Ga./Chamblee Charter) added nine points, including 5-of-6 from the foul line and dished out five assists.

UNCG only shot 28 percent from the field off 23-of-82 shots while Mercer finished at 46.2 percent on 30-of-65 from the floor. The Spartans did grabbed 52 rebounds, including 28 offensively in a battle between the top two offensive teams in the conference.

Mercer's Precious Bridges, who leads the Southern Conference in scoring, dropped 33 points off 13-of-18 from the field and had seven rebounds.

In the first half, Mercer took a 37-25 lead into intermission behind 16 first half points from Precious Bridges off 6-of-10 from the field. Savage led the Spartans with 15 points off 6-of-13 from the floor and grabbed nine rebounds. Mason added five points and four rebounds.

The Bears jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead capped by a jumper from Bridges at the 15:13 mark in the first half. UNCG would respond with five straight points to make the score 7-5 off a layup from Savage.

Mercer would open up a 10-point lead after a 11-3 run ending with a jumper from Briana Williams. The Bears increased its lead to 15 at 28-13 off two made three throws with under five minutes left in the half.

Savage helped the Spartans get back into the game with a couple of offensive rebounds and putbacks. UNCG outscored Mercer 12-9 to finish the half thanks to a fastbreak layup from Savage to make the score 37-25.

In the second half, Mercer stormed out of the gates going on a 15-2 spurt to open up a 52-27 advantage on UNCG just 16:19 remaining in the game.

Just four minutes later, the Bears would increase their lead to 27 points off a fastbreak layup from Bridges to make the score 63-36 at the 11:17 mark.

The Spartans went on a 6-1 run to cut the lead to 22-points with just under nine minutes left in the contest. Mercer would continue to push the pace as Bridges would score back-to-back buckets to make the score 77-48 with 4:41 left on the clock.

The Blue and Gold would outscore the Bears 14-3 to end the game but still lost 80-62 after a strong second half run by Mercer broke the game open.

With the win, Mercer improved to 3-0 all-time against the Spartans.

UNCG continues its road swing with a road contest at Samford Monday, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m.  in Birmingham, Ala.