RADNOR \u2013 Evie Lawrence certainly looks like she belongs in the Archbishop Carroll starting lineup.<\/p>\n
The sophomore guard has been asked to take on a bigger role late in the Patriots\u2019 season, and through two games she has delivered.<\/p>\n
Lawrence started Feb. 28 in Carroll\u2019s District 12 championship win and was back with the first unit again Friday night in the Patriots\u2019 PIAA Class 6A tournament opener. She has stepped into the spot normally held by senior guard and Villanova commit Alexis Eberz, who suffered a serious eye injury in the most accidental way while celebrating Carroll\u2019s victory over Cardinal O\u2019Hara last month at the Palestra for the Catholic League championship.<\/p>\n
With their leader sidelined, Lawrence has emerged and is handling the moment with poise.<\/p>\n
She finished with 11 points, hit three 3-pointers and pulled down seven rebounds in Carroll\u2019s 51-24 victory over Bensalem, the 10th-place team out of District 1. The Patriots advance to face Downingtown West, the third-place finisher from District 1, in a second-round matchup Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Lawrence wasted little time getting involved. She drilled a pull-up jumper that gave Carroll an 8-6 lead, one it would not give back, then splashed a 3-pointer moments later to stretch the advantage to 13-6. She looked confident, moved the ball well and played with the composure of someone who had been in that spot all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just learning a lot, especially with Lex not being here. I\u2019m picking up bigger roles and seeing what things I have to do on defense and offense,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cEverybody has helped my confidence, like (senior guard) Bridget (Grant) and Lex. Coaches have been emphasizing to get better on defense, just doing what I have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what Lawrence did Friday was look completely comfortable in the role.<\/p>\n
How long she stays in the starting lineup remains to be seen, but the experience is valuable. With more opportunities likely coming next season, these big minutes should only benefit Lawrence moving forward.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Eberz continues to recover. Her eye remained swollen and only partially open Friday night as she supported her teammates from the bench. The biggest hurdle, Eberz said, is eliminating the double vision she is experiencing in the affected eye. She remains hopeful she can return during Carroll\u2019s push toward the Giant Center in Hershey, where the state final will be played Friday, March 20.<\/p>\n
Even without the Catholic League MVP the Patriots looked every bit like a team capable of winning it all.<\/p>\n
Junior Abbie McFillin and sophomore Kayla Eberz were excellent. Kayla shook off some early shooting struggles and finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. McFillin provided her usual all-around strong effort, totaling 10 points, eight steals, five rebounds, three assists and two blocks.<\/p>\n
Carroll\u2019s talent was too much for Bensalem to handle. The Owls battled behind dynamic guard Grace McShane, who scored 13 points and handed out two assists, but the Patriots had no trouble pulling away.<\/p>\n
Carroll led 17-11 after one quarter and then took full control, outscoring Bensalem 34-13 the rest of the way. Grant finished with two points and five assists, while junior Cate Schumacher added five points, three rebounds and three assists.<\/p>\n
McFillin said it has been exciting to watch Lawrence step up when the team needs it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so proud of her,\u201d McFillin said. \u201cThe coaches are hard on her practice because they know how much better she can get. She has a really good shot, and she\u2019s got really good ball skills. We just know how much we can get from her and it was so nice to see her play so well. She knocked down some 3s and played really good defense. She just had a really nice game all around.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RADNOR \u2013 Evie Lawrence certainly looks like she belongs in the Archbishop Carroll starting lineup. The sophomore guard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[191,193,192,194,212,305,725,28,726,210],"class_list":["post-132498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bensalem","tag-bensalem","tag-bensalem-headlines","tag-bensalem-news","tag-bensalem-township","tag-delaware-county","tag-high-school-sports","tag-pa-prep-live","tag-pennsylvania","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-dtd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}