Jacksonville 96, Mercer 87

2/21/2008 9:37 PM

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -Marcus Allen scored 22 points to help lead Jacksonville to a 96-87 overtime victory over Mercer Thursday night.

Jacksonville (14-11, 10-3 Atlantic Sun Conference) put in 19 points in the overtime, hitting five of its six shots from the floor.

Jacksonville's Lehmon Colbert had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Ben Smith had 16 points and seven assists while committing no turnovers in 41 minutes.

Sporting a 13-point lead with 11 minutes to go, Mercer (11-16, 6-8) went on a 17-3 run over the next five minutes to take a 64-63 lead on a dunk by Calvin Henry.

After tying the game at 65 with 5:49 left, the Dolphins pushed the lead to six, 74-68, on a Travis Cohn dunk with 3:54 remaining in regulation.

Mercer scored the next six points. Mercer's Shaddean Aaron knocked down a 3-pointer with 1:26 left to tie the game at 77.

In the overtime, Jacksonville got the first five points and pushed the lead to seven on a 3-point play by Cohn with 2:10 left in the game.

Mercer was led by Aaron's game-high 24 points.