Kahlia Lawrence ready to expand her role with Mercer women's team

Kahlia Lawrence had a large role in the Mercer women's basketball team's success last season as a freshman.

Her presence on the team will be even more important this season, even though she is just as a sophomore.

Lawrence was the Southern Conference's Freshman of the Year last year, but that Mercer roster included four senior leaders, giving Lawrence time to grow into her spot on the team.

This year's roster includes seven freshmen, six sophomores, one junior and no seniors. And the junior -- transfer Ciarra Edwards -- wasn't on the team last year.

"It's not really a completely new role for me because in high school I played that role, as well, but I think I'm not just leading my team; I'm also learning from them," Lawrence said. "Almost everybody is new, so I have the chance and the opportunity to learn different playing styles and different attitudes and how everyone is going to come together and how we're going to mesh as a team."

Head coach Susie Gardner likes what she has seen from her young team, and that starts with Lawrence.

Gardner's trust in her star player is founded in last year's strong season. Lawrence started 34 of the Bears' 35 games, and she averaged 13.4 points per game to lead all conference freshmen, while also grabbing 5.5 rebounds per game.

Mercer opens its season Nov. 13 against Coastal Georgia at Hawkins Arena.

"Kahlia was amazing last year, and the reason she was is because her work ethic is off the charts," Gardner said. "She has transferred that into practices this year."

Gardner has used Lawrence's talents and experiences to help with the growth of freshman and former Mary Persons standout KeKe Calloway, who is a talented scorer, like Lawrence. Calloway was The Telegraph's All-Middle Georgia Player of the Year in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

"When we had preseason, before we could work with the team and we could only work with four players at a time, we always made sure that Kahlia and KeKe were together, because we needed KeKe to see what college speed looked like," Gardner said. "Kahlia was such an amazing leader. All of the sudden, Kahlia, who isn't very vocal, had to talk, Kahlia had to show KeKe and be somewhat of a mentor for KeKe. I think it helped Kahlia realize that her actions are making a difference."

With so much turnover on the roster, Gardner is preaching patience to her leader ... and herself.

"Kahlia has also had moments in practice where the frustration has shown because she's having to do so much, and I've had to tell her to be patient," Gardner said. "I've talked to her privately and told her, 'Both you and I, we need to be a little bit more patient than what we're showing right now.' But she is a great player with a great attitude. We've got some very, very special players on our team right now."

Lawrence is trying to help lead them. Her experiences last year should help achieve those goals in leadership.

"Last year really just helped with learning the basics, like how Coach Gardner likes to coach and just the way things are done around here," Lawrence said. "And I think I'm going to be able to help the freshmen learn easier because we've been here for a year. I think that's helping things to run more smoothly."

This story was originally published November 2, 2015 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Kahlia Lawrence ready to expand her role with Mercer women's team ."