A former star basketball player in Columbus is taking her talents to the WNBA

Former Kendrick High School and Mercer University basketball player Kahlia Lawrence has accomplished a great deal in her career. And on Thursday night, her her name was called at WNBA Draft.

The Minnesota Lynx selected Lawrence in the second round with the 24th overall pick. Her stint as a member of the Lynx was short lived, as she was then traded to the Las Vegas Aces. Lawrence and fellow Minnesota draftee Ji-Su Park were sent to the Aces for Jill Barta and a second-round pick in 2019.

“At the end of the day, we got a lot of what we were looking for,” Aces coach and president of basketball operations Bill Laimbeer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We’ve still got a couple open roster spots that we’ve got to fill right now.”

Lawrence’s selection marked the first time a Mercer Bear had been taken in the WNBA Draft since 1997.

“I am so proud of Kahlia,” Mercer head coach Susie Gardner said in the team’s press release. “It has been her dream to play professional basketball after college and to be playing for the Las Vegas Aces is a credit to the career that she had at Mercer. I know Kahlia will do what she has always done and prepare for camp and be ready to contribute to the team. I’m not going to lie, I am one proud coach right now. So happy for Kahlia and her family.”

Lawrence leaves Mercer as the third-highest scorer in program history with 2,275 points. Her collegiate accomplishments include being named Southern Conference Player of the Year three times and taking home the 2017 Georgia Women’s College Player of the Year award.

Prior to suiting up for the Bears, Lawrence made a name for herself at Kendrick High School. Lawrence was a natural in her three seasons with the Cherokees and helped the team make a Class 2A semifinals appearance her junior year and win the title her senior season. She was a two-time member of All-Region, All-Bi-City and All-State First Teams.

“I think that was very important to my career as a whole,” Lawrence said in March of her time at Kendrick. “We’ve kind of been through the same thing here at Mercer where we’ve experienced defeat and made mistakes. I think the things we went through in the past only helped us become better.”

This story was originally published April 13, 2018 at 3:56 PM with the headline "A former star basketball player in Columbus is taking her talents to the WNBA."