Mercer women dominate Southern Conference postseason awards
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
At this point, maybe the women’s portion of the Southern Conference basketball tournament this week in Asheville, N.C. will be the Mercer Invitational.
The Bears are a consensus top-25 team, in AP and the USA Today/Coaches poll, and won their first outright Division I regular-season conference title to enter the tournament as the top seed.
And now, they’ve consumed most of the postseason awards from the coaches and media.
Kahlia Lawrence has become the first player in Southern Conference women’s history to be the league’s player of the year three straight times, after debuting as the SoCon freshman of the year.
Susie Gardner earned her second Coach of the Year honor, leading Mercer to a 27-2 overall and 14-0 conference record, and the two national rankings.
Lawrence is joined on the all-conference first team by Mary Persons grad KeKe Calloway and Sydni Means.
“I view individual honors as team honors,” Gardner said in a Mercer release. “I get really excited when our players have success like this because I know how hard they work as a team and as individuals."
Lawrence averages 18.6 points a game, and is 47th nationally with 538 points. She got her 2,000th point and 1,000th rebound this season.
Means led the conference with 8.1 assists a game and an assist-turnover ratio of 4.72, which also is first in the NCAA, where she is third in assists. Her 658 assists are second in program history.
Calloway is getting 17.3 points a game, sparked by 89 3-pointers, first in the SoCon and 16th nationally. She tied a record with 12 3s against Furman in early January.
“When you have a point guard in Sydni Means, it gives me a calming effect to have someone I can trust on the court and hand the team over to her,” Gardner said in the release. “KeKe has really grown as both a player and a person. She has developed a lot defensively and has become one of our top defenders. Everyone thinks of KeKe as a three point shooter, but she is a gym rat and is always in the gym working on her midrange, getting to the rim and becoming better as a player.
“Lastly, to have a player like Kahlia to get Freshman of the Year and then three-time Player of the Year, that doesn't happen very often. Kahlia is a great player and a great teammate.”
Gardner knew there was pressure on the experienced Bears to get over some humps this season and continue to progress.
“This year the expectations were high and I have worked harder this year than any other year in my coaching career because I knew how high the expectations were,” she said in the release. “We come in and attack each and every day as the most important day of our season and have reaped the benefits beyond my wildest imagination this year, so far.”