western Carolina and vmi come through yesterday; today brings the last socon regular season game with mercer visiting the unc-g Spartans. anyone who's been reading my socon write-ups knows the adversity the mercer bears have faced this month so I won't repeat it here. they've now lost the last 6 s/u and ats. today's game will determine who finishes 6th in the socon regular season and earns the last bye for last bye for the conference tournament. the Spartans are 4-0 s/u and ats and are a solid 10-4 @ home. during their winning streak, they've clearly made an effort to step up their defense - last 4 fg%/3pt% =27%/25.6%; 35.1%/20.7%; 38.1%/21.7%; 37.3%/23.1%. you have to feel for the mercer bears, but it's hard to imagine them doing anything but losing today and going 1 and out in the tournament. unc-g -4 is the play.