Mercer pulls away from Campbell

Mercer bolted out to a 10-3 lead in the first quarter, had doubled up Campbell in the second quarter and then held off second-half rallies and finally pulled away for a 76-60 win Wednesday over the former A-Sun rival in women’s basketball.

Junior Kahlia Lawrence led the way with 29 points on 10-of-21 shooting, while sophomore KeKe Calloway of Mary Persons added 22 points, making half of her 14 shots. Calloway was 4-of-9 on 3-pointers and Lawrence was 9-of-10 from the free-throw line.

Mercer was hot at the line going 19-of-23, 82.6 percent. Campbell’s bench did outscore Mercer’s 37-25.

Campbell trailed 32-16 with 5:53 left in the second quarter after a Calloway 3-pointer, but came back and cut the margin to single digits inside the final minute to trail 36-28 at halftime.

The margin stayed around that for most of the third quarter, until the Camels (1-1) cut it to three with 1:07 left. Mercer led 55-49 entering the final quarter.

The Bears were up by nine with 7:06 left in the game, but an 8-0 run — keyed by Lawrence and Calloway — increased the lead to 15 wtih 4:30 left, and Mercer added to the lead, making it a 19-point game with 2:01 remaining.

Lawrence also had nine rebounds, while Sydni Means had eight assists.

Mercer improved to 2-1, and hosts Florida Atlantic at 7 p.m. on Friday.