Mercer women’s basketball team embracing expectations

The Mercer women’s basketball team had a breakthrough season in 2015-16.

The Bears finished as co-regular-season champions in the Southern Conference and reached the WNIT for the first time. Losing a close game in the conference tournament championship game to Chattanooga, the Bears were not far from an NCAA Tournament berth.

But now it’s time to start the 2016-17 season at 7 p.m. on Friday at Hawkins Arena against Emmanuel College. After such a strong season last year, the Bears are aware of the expectations they face this season.

“Words can’t even describe how excited we are. We’re just ready to get back on the floor and finish what we started last year,” junior standout Kahlia Lawrence said. “We’ve got a great team, and I’m just ready to play with them.”

Mercer was picked to finish second in the conference by the Southern Conference coaches and media members. The Bears were 24-9 last year — their second straight season with at least 20 wins.

“Expectations, obviously, are high. That started last year,” sophomore Amanda Thompson said. “We’re all just focused on getting better personally and figuring out what we can do to contribute to the team and make the team better. We feel the pressure, but we’re not too focused on that. We’re more focused on ourselves and getting better and making sure we’re doing what we can to improve on our game and not focused necessarily what other people think we’re going to be like.”

Last year’s team was led by Lawrence and point guard Sydni Means. Those two got plenty of help from a strong freshman class: Thompson, Linnea Rosendal and former Dodge County star Rachel Selph were all starters, and former Mary Persons star KeKe Calloway was a key performer off the bench.

“We’re a lot further along than we were at this point last year,” Mercer head coach Susie Gardner said. “Our freshmen are sophomores, and it’s just really been fun to come in here and be able to move a lot quicker. We are expanding our vocabulary in terms of what we can do offensively and defensively. The energy has been high, great leadership, so everything is good so far.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2016 at 8:08 PM with the headline "Mercer women’s basketball team embracing expectations."