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CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Senior captain Tristan Carey/Colonial Beach scored a season-high and game-high 37 points, adding a game-high eight rebounds, to lead Longwood University to an 88-85 Big South Conference men's basketball come-from-behind victory at Charleston Southern University on Saturday evening in Charleston, South Carolina.  The visiting Lancers (7-14, 2-4 Big South) trailed 53-48 at halftime, despite 23 first-half points from Carey, before rallying in the second half for the road triumph.  Sophomore Karl Ziegler/Annandale added 16 points, including 10 in the decisive second half, while redshirt-junior captain Jeylani Dublin/Brooklyn, New York had 14 points, also scoring 10 after the intermission, and sophomore captain Lucas Woodhouse/Greenlawn, New York contributed his fifth double-double of the season with 13 points and a game-high 10 assists.  Matt Kennedy led the South Division Buccaneers (9-10, 3-3 Big South) with 28 points.  Longwood will return home to host South Division opponent Gardner-Webb University on Wednesday, January 29 at 7 p.m. at Willett Hall in Farmville.

"A great win," said first-year Longwood head coach Jayson Gee.  "I'm very, very, very proud of our guys.  I was extremely proud of the fact that we fought back in the second half.  Tristan Carey was just magnificent, and for us to win a big game like this, we needed him to do what he did.  As I told them in the meeting last night, we are who we are, but what we have is enough.  We'll keep marching on and try to continue to do some good things."

Charleston Southern jumped out to an early 19-7 advantage, making five three-point field goals during the opening 4:31, including two by Kennedy.  A quick 7-2 run by Longwood made it 21-14 at 14:09, following a jumper by Woodhouse, a three-pointer by Carey and another jumper by Ziegler.  The Buccaneers led 28-18 at 10:19 after a pair of free throws from Paul Gombwer, but the Lancers were back within 31-27 at 7:37 on another jumper by Woodhouse.  A three-pointer by Woodhouse at 4:13 had the visitors within 41-37, but CSU extended the margin to 10 points again at 53-43 with 1:17 on the clock following five more points from Kennedy, including another three-pointer.  Longwood, however, scored the final five points of the period to trail just 53-48 at the break, getting another three-pointer from Carey and a basket inside from Dublin.  Carey (23) and Woodhouse (11) combined for 34 first-half points, while Kennedy (16), Arlon Harper (12) and Saah Nimley (12) combined for 40 first-half points.

Longwood opened the second half on a 10-4 run to take its first lead of the contest at 58-57 with 15:15 remaining on a layup by Carey that followed another three-pointer by the senior.  The contest would remain tight the rest of the way … the Lancers led 62-60 at 14:15 on a jumper by Ziegler, 64-63 at 13:36 on another jumper by Ziegler and 67-66 at 12:01 on a three-pointer from Carey.  Charleston Southern was back in front 68-67 at 11:36 on a basket by Alhaji Fullah, but Longwood was ahead 71-68 at 10:06 following a layup by Carey.  The Buccaneers took their final lead of the night at 80-78 with 2:53 left on a jumper by Kennedy, before the Lancers went ahead for good behind six-straight points from Ziegler to lead 84-80 with 39-seconds to play.  A three-pointer by Will Saunders had the hosts within 84-83 at :25, but Carey took a long inbounds pass from Ziegler and scored on a slam dunk to make it 86-83 at :20.  Another basket from Kennedy made it 86-85 with 10-seconds left, before sophomore transfer Leron Fisher/Baltimore, Maryland made two free throws with eight-seconds remaining.  A last-second three-point attempt by Saunders was off the mark.

Carey led Longwood with his season-high and game-high 37 points, making 13-21 field goals, including 7-10 three-pointers and 4-4 free throws, while adding the game-high eight rebounds.  He now totals 1,298 career points to rank 10th all-time, and now ranks second all-time with 201 career three-pointers.  The previous season-high for Carey was 31 points at TCU on November 12, and his career-high is 40 points scored against Liberty last season.  Carey has two 30-point games and 11 20-point games among his 17 double-figure scoring games this season.  Ziegler had 16 points, five rebounds and three assists for the Lancers, and Dublin added 14 points and six rebounds, off the bench.  Woodhouse finished with 13 points, a game-high 10 assists and a game-high three steals for his fifth double-double this season.  He now totals 338 career assists to rank fifth all-time.  Longwood shot 58% (35-61) from the field, including 53% (8-15) on three-pointers and 83% (10-12) at the free throw line.  The Lancers outscored Charleston Southern 46-24 in the paint, and had a 31-26 advantage in rebounding.

Kennedy led Charleston Southern with his team-high 28 points, making 5-7 three-pointers.  Nimley had 14 points for the Buccaneers, but left the game with over 10 minutes remaining due to an injury.  Harper finished with 12 points, but did not play in the second half, also due to an injury.  CSU shot 49% (26-53) from the field, including 39% (10-26) on three-pointers and 89% (23-26) at the line.

Longwood and Charleston Southern were meeting for only the third time in the sport since 2006-07, and the Lancers now lead the series, 2-1.  Longwood is not scheduled to play the Bucs again during the regular-season, but the two teams could meet again in the VisitMyrtleBeach.com/Big South Men's Basketball Championship, March 5-9.

Longwood has two consecutive wins … over the defending Big South Tournament Champion (Liberty, 69-66) and the defending conference regular season champion (Charleston Southern).  CSU was also the preseason favorite in the South Division.