November 28, 2006

BOX SCORE

FARMVILLE, Va.-- The Longwood women’s basketball team came back from five down, with three minutes remaining, to grab a 56-54 win over Campbell University Tuesday evening at Willett Hall in Farmville. The Lancers move to 4-3 on the season, while Campbell falls to 1-3. Longwood will travel to Columbus, Ohio for a match-up with the sixth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes on Thursday, November 30, tip-off at 7 p.m.

Campbell built a seven point lead on a jumper by Lauren Arthur putting the score at 15-8 with 13:18 to go in the first half. After junior Odessa Williams/Stratford, Conn (Stratford) sunk two foul shots and senior Abbey Freese/West Liberty, Ohio (West Liberty-Salem) laid in a shot on the next possession, the Lancers were able to cut the deficit to three points with 11 minutes to go in the opening half. Campbell however, came storming back, to put the lead back up to seven. After knotting the score at 19 on a three, freshman Becky Fernandes/Fairfax (Bishop Ireton) tied the game once again on a jumper from the left wing putting the score at 21-21 with six minutes remaining. The two teams battled back and forth for the remainder of the half and on a shot by Freese with :02 to go the Lancers and Camels went into the locker room with a 27-27 tie. At the break, Keiva Small/Norfolk (Norview) was perfect from the floor in going 3-3 for six points and a team-high four rebounds.

Freese picked-up where she left off out of the break, hitting two big three-point shots, including one at 15:08 to give the Lancers their first lead of the game. After two quick lead changes, Longwood looked to pull away, on back-to-back lay-ups by Small, building the Lancer lead to 47-38 with 10 minutes remaining in the game. Behind Letitia Dickson’s 12 second-half points, Campbell came charging back and took a five point lead with 3:03 remaining in the game after Kelly Hufstedler hit a jump shot in the lane.

Longwood’s tough defense took over in the final three minutes, holding Campbell to no points, but scoring on its final three posessions. Small ignited the Lancer offense, laying in a pass from senior Ashleigh Hollman/Centreville (Westfield) after the guard stripped Adrienne Rieley on the defensive end. Small converted two foul shots the next time down the floor to cut the Campbell lead to one with 1:30 to go in the game. Sophomore Anna Steg/Fairfax (George C. Marshall) pulled down a crucial defensive rebound with 0:55 to go and Williams finished on the other end, to give the lead back to Longwood for good with 0:26 remaining. Williams was quickly fouled after Campbell’s Dickson missed a jumper and hit one of two foul shots with six seconds remaining for the two point lead. Dickson fired a hail mary three-point shot as time expired but the shot was wide giving the Lancers a 56-54 win.

“This was a defensive team win,” stated head coach Pamela Bass. “Our players showed heart, hustle and confidence down the stretch and showed they could pull it out in a close game. Campbell was out rebounding teams all year and we just played Longwood basketball and shut down its big post player inside. Anna Steg played great on both ends of the floor.”

Small and Fernandes led the Lancer shooters each finishing with 14 points, while Freese contributed 10 in the win. Longwood held the Campbell shooters to 35.5% from the floor in the second half, while shooting for 40.7%.