The South Carolina State (0-1) women fell behind early and were unable to make a run in losing their season opener 78-54 to Mercer (1-1) Tuesday night, spoiling the debut of first-year Lady Bulldog head coach Doug Robertson.

Senior center Marie Reid had 13 points to lead SC State in the loss. Freshman guard Raina Chambers added 11 points and LaTeia Brailey, also a freshman guard, came off the bench for 10 points. Senior forward Jenell Moore contributed eight points, along with a game-high nine rebounds for the Lady Bulldogs who fell were victimized by poor shooting from both the field and charity stripe in falling to 0-1.

Robertson’s team made just 46.4 percent of its free throws (13-28) and connected on only 38 percent of its shots from the field (19-50) in the loss.

The visiting Bears got 21 points from Dominique Chism, one of four Mercer players in double figures. LaToya Jackson added 18 points, Courtney Ford 16, to go along with a team-high eight rebounds, and Natasha Doh 14.

SC State, which trailed 39-28 at the half, fell behind by 18 points, at 48-30, with 16:50 left to play, before going on a 16-6 run to close the gap to 54-46 when Kristin Johnson, who finished with four points, nailed a 3-pointer with 11:47 to play.

Mercer, however, scored 12 of the next 14 points to take a 66-48 lead on two Jackson free throws at 5:49 mark. The Bears took their biggest lead of 24 points when Chism made a free throw with 2:18 remaining. The final score matched that margin.

SC State grabbed an early 7-5 lead in the contest when Sophilia Hipps, who had four points, converted one of two from the line with 16:52 to play in the opening half. Mercer then used a 14-2 run to build a 19-9 advantage on Jackson’s 3-pointer at the 12:30 mark of the period. The Lady Bulldogs closed the gap to three ? 25-22 ? on a LaKeisha Scott layup with 6:20 on the first-half clock before the Bears closed out the period with 14-6 spree to take a 39-28 cushion to the locker room.