Mercer's confidence is high after win over Chattanooga

Mercer carries momentum into its game with East Tennessee State

It was the kind of win that should give a team a boost.

But Mercer sophomore Kahlia Lawrence said the Bears already had plenty of confidence before their 67-44 win over Chattanooga on Thursday.

So they should have some momentum after snapping Chattanooga's 52-game Southern Conference winning streak with a dominant performance.

"Confidence, I think we had it, but this just shows us that we're as good as we can be," Lawrence said. "We can play with anybody in our conference and just proved it (Thursday)."

The Bears certainly did that, improving to 14-5 overall and 4-0 in conference play. Lawrence led the way with 24 points and seven rebounds, but there were strong performances up and down the roster.

Sydni Means scored 12 points and was nearly flawless from her point guard spot, while Keke Calloway (10 points), Alex Williams (eight points) and Brittnee Broadway (six points) were strong off the bench. Mercer outscored Chattanooga 30-18 in the paint, 23-9 on points off turnovers, 17-4 on second-chance points and 24-0 in bench points.

Leading 21-19 in the second quarter, Mercer outscored Chattanooga 46-25 the rest of the game and allowed only five points in the fourth quarter.

"I think that we realized that we were up at halftime, and Chatt's a good team, obviously a great team, and we knew that they were going to come back fighting, so we had to come back hitting even harder," Lawrence said. "Our defense kind of turned up (entering the fourth quarter) because we knew it's the last 10 minutes of the game. We had to pick up the pace. Obviously, we were playing well the whole game, but in the fourth quarter, we really played really good defense."

The Bears must keep their focus and get ready for another big game -- Saturday afternoon against East Tennessee State. Brittney Ezell's Buccaneers, who beat the Bears twice last season, are 11-9 overall and 3-2 in conference play.

Mercer has won eight straight games.

"We didn't beat East Tennessee State at all last year, and I know Brittney does a great job coaching them," Mercer head coach Susie Gardner said. "This is a new challenge for this team. This will be a new experience, 'How do you handle success?' We came into this season, and no one knew; no one, including the media or myself, had any expectations, and probably the players, we had nothing to expect. And now, that we've had this win, how do they handle this?

"I've got to do my job as their coach and just try to keep them in the moment and not get carried away and just prepare for East Tennessee State like we have all year."

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 3:13 PM with the headline "Mercer's confidence is high after win over Chattanooga ."