Mercer happy to get another shot at Georgia Tech

The was no revenge factor in setting up the Mercer women’s basketball team’s game with Georgia Tech on Wednesday.

After all, the Bears-Yellow Jackets game already was scheduled before Mercer’s season ended against Georgia Tech in last year’s WNIT. But that doesn’t mean the Bears aren’t looking forward to the trip to Atlanta at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and the challenge that comes with it.

“They’re going to be a great challenge for us,” Mercer head coach Susie Gardner said of the Yellow Jackets. “They were last year. They’re bigger than us. We’re really going to have to make an effort to rebound, but hopefully, we’ll come to play and give them a good game.”

The Bears have come to play early this season, entering the game with a 7-1 record — the program’s best start since it opened the 1980-81 season with an 8-1 record. Mercer has won six straight games since losing 72-64 to Georgia in the second game of the season, and that streak includes wins over Illinois, Houston and Georgia Southern.

Georgia Tech is also 7-1 with a win over Georgia, while its only loss came to Michigan in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

“I think it’s really exciting, and even more, just getting to play a really good school and getting the opportunity again to try to beat them is really exciting,” Mercer sophomore Amanda Thompson said.

Both teams have three players averaging in double figures in scoring. Mercer is led by Kahlia Lawrence, who was named the Southern Conference Player of the Month on Monday, at 17.3 points per game, while KeKe Calloway averages 15.1 off the bench and point guard Sydni Means averages 11.4.

Francesca Pan leads Georgia Tech at 11.8, followed by Imani Tilford at 11.0 and Zaire O’Neil at 10.4.

“I think it’s important to play the Georgias, the Georgia Techs, the Florida States that are close to us, teams that are more regional,” Gardner said of what playing teams like Georgia Tech does for her program. “It’s going to be a tough challenge. We will find out where some of our weaknesses are, but you can find that out through teams that aren’t BCS either. But they’re going to be a different team just like Houston was a little bit different and Illinois was different, and every team that we face gives us a unique twist.”

This story was originally published December 5, 2016 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Mercer happy to get another shot at Georgia Tech."