Hayley Spivey added 18 points and nine boards and Hannah Barnett had seven points and nine rebounds.
That rebounding edge helped offset an 18-for-49 shooting night for Mercer, including going just 3-for-15 from 3-point range and 13 of 22 at the foul line.
The Titans needed that effort because they will be without Crowell for a month because she broke a bone in her right hand last week in practice. Tori Freeman started in Crowell's place.
"It's just an adjustment because Loran's like the glue of the team," Mercer coach Chris Souder said. "It's kind of an invisible glue because she doesn't say a lot. But she never takes a play off, so it's just a big adjustment.
Going inside to Sickles
"That's the one person who affects the team the most if we lost her. So we decided Tori was capable, and Natalie (VanArsdall) can come in, and Hayley Spivey can play the point, too. So we decided to change our style a little bit. Instead of ripping and running and pressing - we'll still press, but it's just a different style of press - I told them, 'Let's just slow it down a bit.'"
Mercer kept pounding the ball into Sickels, who had 10 second-half points and scored six points in the fourth quarter as the Jaguars (8-11, 2-2) tried to make a run.
"Abra did a real good job on the offensive end. She did a good job sealing her man and we made an effort to pound it in there to her," Souder said.
Mercer led 35-31 to start the fourth quarter, but East Jessamine scored off a turnover to make it 35-33.
"Some of it was we got silly about four or five possessions. In our zone, we quit moving and started reaching, and we put them on the foul line too much (7-for-9 in the fourth quarter)," Souder said. "We told them if they're going to beat us, make them earn it. And we had a spell where we stopped rebounding. They got some offensive rebounds on us."
Sickels scored inside and Spivey made a pair of free throws to push the lead to 39-33 with 5:37 top play. Sickels sandwiched two buckets between a Leah Flora 3-pointer to make it 48-41 with 2:41 to play, and Spivey went 4-for-6 at the foul line over the final 33.6 seconds to help preserve the win.
"Since Loran was out, (Souder) wanted us to slow it down and get bigger. And Abra, we put a lot on her shoulders to make her rebound and make some points for us. And she did well," Barnett said.
Mercer led 27-18 at the half, and still led 31-27 with 1:38 left in the third quarter when East Jessamine, which was 14-for-46 from the field and 13-for-16 at the foul line, chipped into the lead on a jumper by Ashlee Willoughby and a two free throws by Liz Miller.
East Jessamine's only lead was 2-0, and the game was tied at 6-6 when Mercer went on a 7-2 run. Spivey scored off a putback, Flora nailed a 3-pointer and Freeman hit a jumper at the buzzer to make it a 13-8 game after the first period.
Up 13-12, Mercer went on 8-0 run, then used a 6-0 run to lead by nine points at the half.
E. JESSAMINE (8-11) - Aretha Johnson 3, Liz Miller 12, Emily Underwood 4, Ashlee Willoughby 18, Kricehlle Ford 7, Erin Sieberkrob 1.
MERCER (10-9) - Tori Freeman 2, Leah Flora 9, Hayley Spivey 18, Hannah Barnett 7, Abra Sickels 16.
E. Jessamine8183145Mercer13233552
