November 19, 2010

Box Score

FARMVILLE, Va. - The Longwood University women's basketball team dropped a close 68-65 decision to High Point University of the Big South Conference on Friday night in Willett Hall in Farmville. The two teams traded the lead 12 times in the game, including six times in the second half. Longwood (1-2) was led by sophomore Chelsea Coward | Mechanicsville (Hanover) with a game-high 19 points while junior Brittanni Billups | Goldsboro, N.C. (Eastern Wayne) recorded her second-straight double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. High Point (3-1) was led by Shamia Brown with 17 points while Cheyenne Parker grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds. The Lancers return to action on Sunday, November 21, when they travel to Charlottesville to take on the University of Virginia of the Atlantic Coast Conference at 2 p.m. in John Paul Jones Arena.

Longwood jumped out to an early 9-4 lead at the first media timeout behind six points from Billups. High Point went on an 11-5 run over the next 5:49 to take the 15-14 lead with 10:09 remaining in the half. The two teams traded the lead four more times in the first half and the game was tied twice during that span before High Point pulled away to take a 34-30 lead in to halftime.

Longwood trimmed the lead to 38-37 with 16:44 remaining in the game on a jumper by Coward. High Point pushed the lead to eight at 49-41 with 11:37 remaining but the Lancers stormed back. Back-to-back  jumpers by sophomore Erin Neal | Durham, N.C. (Hillside) and Coward and a layup by Billups cut the lead to two at 49-47 with 9:44 remaining. Junior Brittany Jones | Richmond (North Florida) completed the comeback and tied the game with a pair of free throws with 9:23 remaining. The teams went back and forth with the Panthers pulling ahead for good on a jumper by Parker to make the score 64-63 with 1:52 remaining. Brown made a pair of free throws, but junior Mina Jovanovic | Smederevska Palanka, Serbia (Salt Lake CC) made a layup to cut the lead to 66-65 with 1:10 remaining. Frances Fields made a pair of free throws to push the lead back to 68-65 with five seconds remaining. Freshman Bria White | Silver Spring, Md. (Bethesda-Chevy Chase) launched a three-pointer at the buzzer but it bounced away.

Longwood shot 35.7% (25-70) from the floor, including 15.4% (2-13) from behind the arc, and 52% (13-25) from the foul line. Coward scored a season-high 19 points (7-16 FG) with seven rebounds while White added 10 points (4-12 FG). Longwood outscored High Point 36-24 in the paint and turned 20 Panther turnovers into 20 points.

High Point shot 33.9% (21-62) from the floor, including 33.3% (4-12) from behind the arc, and 66.7% (22-33) from the foul line. The Panthers went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the final four minutes of the game. Brown led the Panthers with 17 points (6-8 FG) while LaTeisha Dean and Erin Reynolds each scored 11 points. HPU outrebounded Longwood 55-46 and received 33 points from its bench.