Mercer has a couple of local ties on team

There’s more to gain than a nice payday and some national exposure for Mercer when it faces No. 18 USC on Saturday at the Galen Center.

Two players from the small private school located in Macon, Ga., will enjoy a brief homecoming. Senior guard Shaddean Aaron starred at Claremont High and freshman guard Mark Hall led Los Angeles Loyola High in scoring last season.

Their return to Southern California would be especially sweet if the Bears could pull off the kind of stunner they did in a season opener seven years ago against Auburn.

Mercer Coach Mark Slonaker regularly schedules major-conference teams, with mostly predictable results.

The Bears opened at nationally ranked Wisconsin last season and later played at Oregon -- both losses -- and they have a verbal agreement to play UCLA next year at Pauley Pavilion as part of a West Coast swing that also includes a game against Loyola Marymount.

“For us to go against great teams in great facilities, it’s a thrill,” Slonaker said.

Mercer features at least one top-shelf talent in sophomore guard James Florence, who averaged 19.3 points last season and was one of three freshmen in the country to lead his conference in scoring. Florence is one of four returning starters from a team that went 13-17 and finished sixth in the Atlantic Sun Conference last season, though senior forward Sam Dolan will not make the trip after aggravating a back injury during a scrimmage.

The Bears haven’t qualified for the NCAA tournament since 1985 but had a season to remember as recently as 2002-03, when they engineered the biggest turnaround in NCAA history at the time by going 23-6 one year after finishing 6-23.

While the USC-Mercer game will not be televised, it will be available on a video feed that can be accessed on usctrojans.com. Those who have purchased an annual or monthly subscription to Trojan TV All-Access can view the game for free; others must pay $4.99.

Other games that will be available via video feeds are Fresno Pacific on Dec. 8, Delaware State on Dec. 17, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Dec. 22 and UC Riverside on Dec. 29. The games can be purchased on an individual basis for $4.99 each or as part of a five-game package for $19.99.

Sophomore forward Taj Gibson rolled his ankle with about 10 minutes left in practice Wednesday, Coach Tim Floyd said, but the severity of the injury was not immediately known. He will be re-evaluated today. . . . Junior forward RouSean Cromwell missed his third consecutive day of practice because of a leg injury.

ben.bolch@latimes.com