December 2, 2006

BOX SCORE

DAYTON, Ohio—The Longwood women’s basketball team closed its Ohio trip with a 52-45 loss to Wright State Saturday afternoon in Dayton, Ohio. Longwood falls to 4-5 on the season, while Wright State moves to 1-5 on the year. The Lancers will return to action on Wednesday December 6 as they host Maryland-Eastern Shore in a 7 p.m. match-up.

Wright State’s Tyanda Hammock opened the game with a three-pointer to give the Raiders a 3-0 lead. The Lancers came right back and grabbed a three point lead of their own, on back-to-back jump shots by Keiva Small/Norfolk (Norview) and two back door lay-ups by Anna Steg/Fairfax (George C. Marshall) forcing Wright State to take a 30 second timeout. With the score tied at 15 with 10:11 to go in the half, the Raiders were able to put a 6-0 run together, getting its biggest lead of the half with 7:22 to go before the break. Senior Abbey Freese/West Liberty, Ohio (West Liberty-Salem) hit a three-pointer on Longwood’s next possession to cut the deficit to three. Claire Blevins/Chantilly (Chantilly) recorded Longwood’s final basket of the half to bring the game back within three, but WSU’s Heather Parrish hit a jumper with six seconds left to give the home side a five point half time lead.

The Longwood defense came out strong in the second half, holding Wright State scoreless for the first five minutes of the half and cut the Wright State lead to one after Steg and Blevins hit jump shots on the Lancers first two possessions of the half. Led by Sierra Clayton Wright State went on an 8-0 run that Longwood never recovered from, building an 11 point lead with 11:36 remaining in the game. Longwood cut the lead to seven with under a minute on a lay-up by Small, but it was too late as the Raiders handed the Lancers a 52-45 loss.

For the game Ashleigh Hollman/Centreville (Westfield) and Small led the Lancers in points tallying eight a piece while Steg pulled down a team high seven rebounds.

“This wasn’t the result we wanted, but the last 0:54 showed what can happen when we play focused and be effective in executing our game plan,” stated head coach Pamela Bass. “This trip we saw one of the best teams in the nation and a program that will be the next step for us in the future. We’re still a young team and the past couple of days have been a great learning experience for us. I think the team saw that we have a team identity rather than an individual one. We are going to take a lot from this trip and start using it in our next game Wednesday night with Maryland-Eastern Shore.”