Mercer women's basketball team suffers first loss of the season

The Mercer women's basketball team opened the season with three wins and looked to be on its way to a fourth, but the Bears struggled in the fourth quarter Sunday against Saint Louis in a 68-60 loss.

The Billikens (3-0) outscored the Bears (3-1) 32-19 in the final quarter.

Kahlia Lawrence led the Bears with 22 points, but the Bears couldn't get much going other than that. Mercer shot just 41.0 percent from the floor and 22.2 percent from 3-point range.

Saint Louis shot 45.1 percent from the floor, including 51.9 percent in the second half.

THREE WHO MATTERED

Lawrence: The sophomore made 8-of-22 shots from the floor and all five of her free throws, but she was only 1-of-6 on 3-pointers.

Sadie Stipanovich: Saint Louis' junior center had 20 points and eight rebounds.

Jackie Kemph: Saint Louis' point guard struggled from the floor, hitting 4-of-12, but she finished with 16 points and made all eight of her free throws. She also had six assists.

TURNING POINT

Mercer led 41-36 going into the fourth quarter, but Saint Louis opened the final quarter with a 15-6 run to take control of the game and kept that control the rest of the way.

OBSERVATIONS

Searching for offense: The Bears didn't get much going with their offense, and a lot of their possessions went up against the shot clock.

Balanced attack: Eight players scored for Mercer, but the Bears need a second consistent scorer to help Lawrence and never found one Sunday.

Veteran Billikens: Saint Louis lost in overtime to Mercer last year, but the Billikens return most of their players from that team, and that veteran leadership showed Sunday against a young Mercer team.

THEY SAID IT

Mercer head coach Susie Gardner on the loss: "We played well for probably three quarters of the game. We made a substitution, and they got the lead. We've got to have people who can come off the bench and give us a spark and not take us backward. We're still searching."

Gardner on the offensive struggles: "We've got to find out who, besides Kahlia, has the ability to take and make shots in crunch time. Right now, she's the only one who's proven that she can do that. I told them after the game, 'You all were your leading scorers on your high school team, so don't be afraid to step up and make the big shot.' "

Gardner on quick turnaround after win Friday: "I told them, 'When we get to conference, we're going to play Thursday-Saturday anyway, so it's going to be the same exact same thing.' I was pretty happy that we had the turnaround, and I wanted them to experience it. They handled (Saturday's) practice really, really well, and we had film work and went for about an hour-and-a-half, and they were attentive. We were ready, and I think it looked like we had a good game plan, and we were ready for it. But Saint Louis is a good team with a lot of experience, and they played well.'

UP NEXT

Mercer faces Charlotte at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Atlanta in the Georgia State Thanksgiving Classic.

This story was originally published November 22, 2015 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Mercer women's basketball team suffers first loss of the season ."