Note: The following was written by Todd Vinyard, who will be blogging throughout the 2015-16 basketball and wrestling seasons as teams prepare to head to Asheville, N.C., in March.
The pace is picking up in the Southern Conference on the way to the SoCon Women’s Basketball Championship and the Arby’s SoCon Wrestling Championships in March in Asheville, N.C. With help from conference and school media relations offices here is a look at recent happenings in these two sports:
What We’ve Learned
More clutch play from Kahlia Lawrence: We already knew Mercer’s Kahlia Lawrence was a solid player after a strong season. She continues to prove it. And on a team with seven freshmen she is quickly fitting into the role of leader.
Lawrence scored 31.0 points per game in two overtime wins (UNCG and Western Carolina) last week. The Columbus, Ga., native currently ranks second in the SoCon with an average of 17.9 points per game and is in the top five in the league in field-goal percentage (.439) and assists (2.8 per game).
The strong showing was enough to earn her Innovative Office Solutions Southern Conference Player of the Week honors for games played Jan. 5-11.
SoCon Wrestling and Rankings: Conference wrestling teams made appearances in the national rankings list this week.
For the first time in program history, Appalachian State cracked the top 25 of the USA Today/National Wrestling Coaches Association poll on Tuesday, coming in at No. 25. The Mountaineers (8-2, 3-0 SoCon) received votes in the previous two editions of the poll as well. The Mountaineers have won their last five dual matches.
Chattanooga was first in the “others receiving votes” category with nine points.
Coming Up
Two of the three undefeated teams in SoCon Women’s Basketball, Mercer (2-0) and Samford (2-0), meet in Birmingham Saturday at 3 p.m. on ESPN3.
Mercer tries to win its third road conference game and seventh straight. The Bears must prepare for the always dangerous Princeton motion offense that the Bulldogs run.
Alex Williams has been a force for Mercer on the boards early. She is the team’s leading rebounder with two double-figure rebounding games and an average of 6.4 rebounds per contest.
Names To Know
UTC’s Jasmine Joyner posted 21 points and 20 rebounds as the Mocs downed Furman to win their 50th league game in a row.
Austin Trott picked up a 15-9 victory at 165 pounds to help Gardner-Webb to a 35-6 win over SIU Edwardsville.
The Citadel was behind 17-16 heading into the 197-pound match against Campbell. Marshall Haas and Joe Bexley pulled out wins to give the Bulldogs the 22-17 victory.
Davidson wrestling coach Bob Patnesky is in his eleventh season as the Wildcats head coach. He entered the season ranked third in all-time victories at the school.
Two VMI freshmen Dominick Gallo (125) and Darren Ostrander (141) led the way with individual titles for their weight class at the Jim Crytzer Invitational hosted by Washington & Lee. Seven Keydet wrestlers placed in the top four of their weight divisions.
Campbell’s Nathan Kraisser earned his first Arby's Southern Conference Wrestler of the Week award after going 5-0 in duals over the last week. The 133-pound redshirt junior has the Camels’ best overall individual and dual record.
Derek Nagel of SIUE earned his first Southern Conference victory with an 11-0 decision at 184 pounds over Taylor Jackson of Appalachian State.
UNCG coach Wendy Palmer has a clear vision for the Spartans moving forward this year. “We have to learn from our mistakes and play with intensity from the start.” Palmer said on UNCGSpartans.com.
Furman women's basketball player Kelsey Ellis has seen action in all 15 games this year, including scoring a career-high 20 points in an 80-52 win over Converse. She also has a 3.49 grade point average in English. She was named Furman’s ScanSource Student-Athlete Leader of the Month for December. The award was created this year to honor Furman student-athletes who excel in the classroom, on the field, and in the community.
Wofford senior Jordan Frazier has made plenty of fast break layups after a steal in her career, but one against ETSU was very special. Frazier is now the 13th Terrier to score 1,000 points.
What To Watch For
The ETSU women are closing in on a record victory for the basketball program. The Bucs are five wins away from reaching 600 total victories in program history.
We’ll watch for that and much more in the next few weeks as we edge closer to the 2016 Southern Conference Basketball Championships present by General Shale and 2016 Arby’s Southern Conference Wrestling Championships. Remember to check out www.soconsports.com for complete coverage of basketball and wrestling. See you next time.