The physical distance from the bench to the basketball court is only a few steps. But for a young player with little experience, it might as well be in another time zone.
Entering her sophomore season at Richmond Hill, guard Kayden Lawrence certainly was short on playing time and confidence, but it didn’t take long for her to close that gap and become a fixture on the in-bounds side of the court this season.
“As a freshman, most of her minutes came on JV,” said Wildcats head coach Sarah Jones. “Throughout the summer and the offseason, we expected her to get some more minutes on varsity, but we were still thinking the majority of her minutes would come on JV. But through the first couple weeks of practice and our first scrimmage and couple of games, she just got out there and took complete advantage of the minutes she was getting. We’ve had her solely on varsity since then.”
Jones says Lawrence’s hard work and hustle, particularly on defense, caught her attention and made it impossible to confine her to the bench after the first few games of the 2021-22 season.
“She’s one of our better defenders,” said Jones. “She can score a few points here and there, but the majority of her strengths for us, and what we really need her for, is her defense. She’ll get in there, she’ll take charge, she doesn’t mind getting on the floor after the ball. That’s really what we look for her to do.”
Lawrence agrees that defense is her forte. In fact, she says, it’s her favorite part of the game.
“I like hustling. I like the adrenaline it gives me,” said Lawrence.
Beginning with the summer league she played in prior to the season and continuing with each passing game for the Wildcats, Lawrence’s confidence has soared.
“When I would be on the bench [during varsity games], I would be like, ‘Oh, if she puts me in, I’m going to be so nervous, I don’t know what I’m going to do,’” said Lawrence. “I would just think too much. I feel like this year I’m more confident in what I can do, and working over the summer really helped with that too.”
Lawrence’s minutes have more than tripled this season, and while her offensive production is still developing, she’s clearly making an impact as a growing leader on the floor.
Jones points to one early season game in particular, against Camden County, as an example of Lawrence’s potential as a game-changer.
“That was one of her best games, where she was kind of an X factor for us,” said Jones. “She played really good defense for us and scored six points. That was early on in the season, and it was important for us because one of our leading scorers got hurt. We needed to pick up some points from other players, and she knocked down some of those shots for us.”
Jones also explained Lawrence’s rapid improvement.
“I think it just shows how hard she works,” said Jones. “She’s been coming in early [to practice], and she’s been trying to raise her offensive game as well. As a freshman, you’re learning a whole new system and just trying to get the fundamentals and basics, and now she’s really starting to put those together. You go from having a little summer ball and your freshman year, and then another summer, and just kind of build on that foundation.”
Lawrence grew up in nearby Savannah and took up basketball as a 5-year-old at a local YMCA. She later moved up to AAU competition, playing for the Savannah Warriors. She recalls her first game at that level, at age 11, as one of her most memorable.
“I was young and playing on an older team,” said Lawrence. “We were down by a lot, so I got to go in, and when I got on the court, right when I went in, I got a steal and a layup. That was my first-ever points in AAU.”
At the pace Kayden Lawrence is on now, she’ll surely have a career with plenty more steals and points to remember.
