By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com
 

          For three games in Asheville, Mercer failed to provide the Southern Conference's women's basketball tournament one thing:

          Drama.

          The Bears did provide one thing: dominance.

          Mercer finished things off the same as it started, dumping ETSU 68-53 Sunday in the championship game to earn the program's first NCAA Tournament bid as a Division I program.

          The Bears stormed through the tournament, beating Western Carolina 75-44 and Samford 81-44. Chattanooga was sent home in the first round, opening the door more for the best team in the conference to continue on in the NCAA tournament.

          A year ago, the Bears blew a 13-point lead and lost to Chattanooga in the finale.

          "I remember  all the awful emotions and I was like 'We gotto get through this'," Gardner said in the postgame press conference. "I’m not certain if we would’ve won last year, we would have had the type of season we did this year. There was an energy, a passion coming to practice that we had one thing else we needed to do.

          "To have a (win) streak, to go undefeated in this great conference, that’s hard to do. ... I think our loss last year is the reason this year was so incredible.”

Related column: Gardner accomplishments - with more to come - are miraculous

          The NCAA Selection show is March 12.

          Three-time conference player of the year Kahlia Lawrence led Mercer with 29 points and 3 steals. Alex Williams had 14 points and KeKe Calloway 11, while Amanda Thompson barely missed a double-double with 9 points and 11 rebounds to go with 5 steals.

          "Amanda, I don't know how she does it," Gardner said. "Without Amanda, we don't win this championship."

          Sydni Means had 6 assists and only 2 turnovers in 40 minutes and kept the beat-three-times whammy in the closet.

          "Playing a team two or three times is difficult," she said. "At this time of year, everyone knows our plays."
          But nobody has been able to stop them.

          Mercer has won 27 straight games and improved to 30-2, while ETSU fell to 0-5 in championship games.

          Lawrence was the tournament outstanding player, and joined by Calloway on the all-tournament first team with Means and Thompson on the second team.

          ETSU tied the game twice in the first haf, trailed 34-23 at halftime, got within 39-32 with 5:32 left in the third, but Mercer's 10-2 run put the Bears in control. The fourth-quarter margin never dropped below double digits.

          The always-calm Lawrence was emotional after the game as the Bears' accomplishments were topped with icing.

          "We worked so hard to get to this point again," she said. "To do what we set out to do was just overwhelming. I couldn't control any of my emotions, and I was so happy for my team to complete this goal we set early in the season."