Mercer women's basketball team takes on tough trip

The Mercer women's basketball team has had a focused approach throughout this season -- not looking ahead, while playing each moment, possession and game as they come.

Even with two huge games this week in the Southern Conference standings, the Bears aren't about to change that approach.

Mercer is alone in first place at 9-1 in conference play after its win Saturday over Samford. The Bears are 19-6 overall, and with one more win, they will reach the 20-win plateau for the third time in four seasons.

Next up is a game Thursday at East Tennessee State, which is 16-10 overall and 8-3 in conference play and handed Mercer its only conference loss. Then Mercer heads to Chattanooga, which is 18-7 and 9-2 and had its 52-game conference winning streak snapped by Mercer last month.

"We know that East Tennessee State and Chattanooga are both great teams, and they have great players and great coaches," Mercer leading scorer Kahlia Lawrence said. "Going into this game, we're going to practice hard and focus on East Tennessee State first, and when we get past that, we'll look to Chattanooga, and we just want to finish strong in the regular season."

That's exactly the kind of focus head coach Susie Gardner has preached to her young team all season, and it has paid off. The Bears have won five straight games, and they have won 13 of 14 since the middle of December. The lone loss was a 55-53 decision at home against East Tennessee State.

The Buccaneers also beat the Bears three times last year in Mercer's first season in the Southern Conference.

"We're ready for them. We're ready to play them, for sure," sophomore point guard Syndi Means said. "I'm just so excited to go out on the road and have two more big games. But we're really focused on this next one.

"We have confidence, but we just love playing with each other and love playing for each other, and that's always great."

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Mercer women's basketball team takes on tough trip ."