Georgia forward Mackenzie Engram (33) drives past Mercer forward/guard Amanda Thompson (2) during the first half of a first-round game in the NCAA women's college basketball tournament in Athens, Ga., Saturday, March. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Joshua L. Jones)ATHENS, Ga. - Georgia women's basketball coach Joni Taylor told her guards to pound the ball inside to Mackenzie Engram and Caliya Robinson all afternoon.
Taylor knew the Lady Bulldogs had too much size for Mercer to contain Saturday in their NCAA tournament matchup.
"We knew that was our advantage, and we did a great job of making sure that we did that," Taylor said.
Robinson had 23 points and 16 rebounds, and Engram added 21 and 10 as No. 4 seed Georgia held off 13th-seeded Mercer 68-63 in the first round of the Albany Regional.
Que Morrison finished with 10 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Dogs (26-6), who will face Duke on Monday night. The fifth-seeded Blue Devils beat 12th-seeded Belmont 72-58 in the day's first game at Stegeman Coliseum.
Kahlia Lawrence scored 23 points and KeKe Calloway had 15 for Mercer (30-3). The Bears had won a school-record 27 straight games, the nation's third-longest active streak, while sweeping the Southern Conference regular-season and tournament titles to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time.
Georgia had the game's biggest lead at 11 points early in the third quarter, but the Lady Dogs let Mercer pull within one twice in the fourth. After Robinson scored Georgia's last field goal with 2:14 remaining, the Lady Dogs put Mercer away by hitting seven of their last eight foul shots.
"They were out for blood, and I think they played awesome," Engram said of the Bears. "But we pulled it out and kept our composure."
Mercer used scrappy perimeter defense, forcing steals and challenging passing lanes on every possession in which Georgia ran a set offense, but the Bears couldn't make up for a lack of size, getting outscored 32-8 in the paint.
"We decided to play to put more pressure on the passers, but we didn't do a great job with it," said Mercer coach Susie Gardner, who played at Georgia and was later a grad assistant there under former longtime coach Andy Landers.
"Engram and Robinson are big-time players. We have Amanda Thompson at 5-9 getting nine offensive rebounds. How in the world? That's just heart."
Robinson hit eight of her first nine shots and had 14 points by early in the second quarter. Georgia never trailed after Robinson's layup, with an assist by Morrison, made it 30-28 with 4:51 to play in the opening half.
There were 11 lead changes and seven ties before halftime. The Lady Bulldogs took a five-point lead, the biggest lead before intermission, on Morrison's tip-in with 1:07 left in the second quarter.
Morrison put back her missed shot on the first possession of the third, then followed with four free throws to make it 43-32, Georgia's first double-digit lead.
Calloway had nine points on 3-for-6 shooting before getting hurt at the 4:50 mark of the second quarter. She returned less than two minutes later and didn't take another shot until her 3 late in the third cut the lead to five.
Lawrence, a three-time SoCon player of the year, took several ill-advised wild shots late in the game and finished just 8-for-28 from the field, but she took advantage of a poor foul by Stephanie Paul at the end of the period.
Pulling up to take a long 3 before the buzzer, Lawrence was knocked in the arm with 0.4 seconds to go and sank three free throws to make it a four-point game entering the fourth.
"They obviously have two great post players that rebound the ball very well, but it wasn't just them that hurt us," the senior star said. "Their guards got some very critical offensive rebounds, and that did hurt us. We didn't stop fighting. We just fell short."