November 16, 2007

BOX SCORE

FARMVILLE, Va.-- Longwood University women’s basketball defeated Howard 85-73 in the opening game of the Longwood Classic sponsored by C&L Machine and Welding, Inc. Friday evening.  The Lancers (1-3) dominated the paint outscoring the Bison 46-32.  Seniors Keiva Small/Norfolk (Norview) and Odessa Williams/Stratford, Conn. (Stratford) combined for 42 points on the night as Small recorded 22 points and Williams tallied 20 in the win.  The two seniors also tallied a double-double in the game, each pulling down ten rebounds.  Howard (0-4) was led by Asha Santee and Shannon Carlisle who each tallied 24 points.  The Lancers will close the tournament Saturday, November 17 with a 3 p.m. contest with Morgan State.
    
Howard jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, as Carlisle went coast to coast, forcing the Lancers to take a thirty second timeout.  The Bison took a 13-7 lead with them into the first media time out, after Santee hit a three pointer and a lay-up on Howard’s next possession for the early lead.  Longwood started to chip away at the Bison lead, putting together a 6-0 run, capped by a three pointer by Small to knot the score at 13 with 13:07 left in the first half.
    
Small didn’t stop there, recording Longwood’s next eight points to give Longwood its first lead of the game, 18-16, with 11:45 left in the half.  Howard regained the lead three minutes later, stringing together a six point run of its own to take a 26-20 lead into the third media timeout.  Junior Courtney Dyer/Richmond (Monacan) hit a three pointer to bring Longwood within one and on the Lancers next trip down the floor, freshman Mallory Short/Richmond (Mills E. Godwin) hit a pair of free throws to give Longwood the lead for good.  The final six minutes of the first half was a back and forth battle, but Longwood won the battle of the boards and was able to record 13 second chance points to Howard’s two, taking a 37-36 lead into halftime.
    
Longwood remained strong inside out of the locker room, having its first two buckets of the second half come from offensive rebounds.  Junior Anna Steg/Vienna (George C. Marshall) put back a missed Lancer jumper and junior Amber Sims/Lawrenceville (Brunswick Senior) layed in a pass from an offensive board pulled down by sophomore Becky Fernandes/Fairfax (Bishop Ireton) for the 41-38 lead.  Longwood went on a 10-4 run out of the first media time out to grab its biggest lead of the game, ten points, after Small drove down the lane and hit a lay-up while drawing a foul.  Small hit the free throw, forcing Howard to take a timeout with the score at 52-42 with 14:14 left in the game.  The Bison got as close as five points with 10:35 left in the game, but the Lancers held on and pushed the game out of reach, with the continuing strong play inside.  
    
Small had a strong overall performance, dishing out six assists while blocking two shots and recording two steals. Freshman Cierra Baker/Windsor, Conn. (Windsor) also had a strong performance recording 13 points off the bench for the Lancers.  The Longwood bench was strong, outscoring Howard’s 46-5.  Longwood shot 45.1% from the floor, as season best for the Lancers, while Howard shot 41.7%.