Mercer women open rebuilding season at home Tuesday

(Schedule at bottom)

          More than in a few years, the questions outnumber the answer for Mercer women’s basketball.

          For one, the Bears aren’t the consensus favorite in the Southern Conference, picked third by coaches and first by media. They didn’t load up the preseason all-conference team, landing only Shannon Titus among the top 10. And for the first time since 2015, they’re not among the top 25 in the Collegeinsider.com mid-major preseason poll.

          They’ll begin work to prove that skepticism wrong Tuesday at 7 p.m. when they open the season at Hawkins Arena against LaGrange, a member of the Division III USA South Conference.

          The Panthers were picked to finish fifh in the USA South’s West Division, after finishing 13-13 overall and 7-9 in conference play, tied for fifth in the division.

          The game will be a homecoming for Rutland grad Jada Brown, a sophomore guard, and Tattnall alum Breonna Glove, a freshman forward. Brown played in 19 games last year, getting 6.3 minutes a game and averaging 1.7 points and a rebounds a game.

          The Panthers return seniors Mykelli Taylor, Sarah, Evans, and Sadie Desroches, who teamed for 14.7 points and 8.6 rebounds a game. They lost four of their top five scorers to graduation.

          Titus is the bulk of the returning nucleus. The 5-11 junior from Northview in Johns Creek is a returning all-conference second-teamer and all-defensive team player. She started all but one game last year, shooting 47.6 percent from the floor and getting 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2.2 assists.

          Young? Titus is the only Bear above the sophomore class. LaKaitlin Wright, a rising junior from Wheeler County, transferred to Towson, of the Colonial Athletic Association.

          The Bears have to replace stalwarts KeKe Calloway, Amada Thompson, Linnea Rosendal, Rachel Selph, among others. Those four comprised Mercer’s other four starters, with only Ally Welch getting a start last year.

          Junior forward Jaron Doughtery played the second-most minutes among returnees at 9.2 a game, a minute more than Amoria Neal-Tysor.

          Mercer hosts Western Kentucky on Friday at 4:30 p.m., then hits the road at Kennesaw State, Alabama, and Georgia (Nov. 21) before returning home on Nov. 24 against Eastern Kentucky.