No. 6 Georgia women cruise past Mercer, 80-38

Georgia (10-0) is off to its best start since opening the 2009-10 season with 16 victories, and has won by an average of 27.3 points a game.

"I really like the way our team is playing right now," freshman guard Marjorie Butler said. "Nobody on the team is selfish and everybody is going out there and playing hard every game. That's hard for any team to play against us when you have nine and 10 people going out there every game and giving their all."

The Lady Bulldogs had 10 players log between 11 and 25 minutes against Mercer. For the season, nine players are averaging between 16 and 24 minutes.

"I think we've done a really good job thus far," James said. "Having five freshmen and then having the class (of seniors) that we have, we've done a really good job of jelling together."

Georgia struggled early against Mercer (4-3), even trailing four minutes into the game. But the Lady Bulldogs took control the end of the first half and then dominated the second half.

They led 34-21 at halftime before scoring the first nine points of the second half.

That started a 25-5 run that extended the Lady Bulldogs' advantage to 59-26 with 9:43 left in the game.

Georgia shot 59 percent from the field (20-of-34) in the second half and was 9 for 15 (60 percent) on 3-pointers.

"Georgia hit a lot of threes," said Mercer coach Susie Gardner, who played for Georgia coach Andy Landers from 1982-86. "I don't think that's necessarily their M.O., but they hit a lot of 3s on us, and they're bigger, quicker, stronger and faster than us. They're very, very good, and I think they'll go far in the NCAA tournament this year."