HIGH POINT, N.C. – Led by a near triple-double from Big South Preseason Player of the Year John Brown, the conference preseason favorite High Point Panthers took down Longwood 90-66 in the Big South opener Wednesday evening at the Millis Center.
 
Brown's 18 points, nine rebounds and seven assists came in a matchup of two of the top big men in the Big South, but it was High Point's (5-2, 1-0 Big South) supporting cast that made the difference.
 
Longwood (3-5, 0-1 Big South) preseason all-conference center Lotanna Nwogbo drew the defensive assignment on Brown, and vice versa, and the result was a physical back-and-forth battle of two of the top big men in the Big South. The 6-8, 255-pound Lancer center matched Brown's production with a game-high 19 points and 10 rebounds, but it was High Point's depth that shined through.
 
Led by a 4-of-5 three-point shooting performance from 16-point scorer Lorenzo Cugini, the Panthers shot a season-best 11-of-19 (.579) from three-point range, including 5-of-6 in the second half. Cugini was one of four double-figure scorers for the Panthers, who also got a combined 25 points from the backcourt tandem of Anthony Lindnauer and Adam Weary.
 
"What I was really disappointed in was our defense," said Longwood head coach Jayson Gee. "Their options just eventually wore us down and made us defeated. But we have to give High Point credit; they're a good basketball team, and we'll live to fight another day."
 
The Lancers limited Brown to eight first-half points, but Cugini took advantage of the added attention Longwood paid to the preseason player of the year and went off for 13 points in the opening frame. He hit 3-of-4 treys during that span to help High Point take a 48-32 lead into halftime.
 
Longwood slowed Cugini's production to just three points in the second half, but it was at the expense the remainder of High Point's backcourt. Five different Panthers made three-pointers after the break as part of a 5-of-6 shooting performance from long range in the second half, which ultimately freed up Brown to cap his night with 10 more points in the second half.
 
"Those guys started making shots, and it opened up things for [Brown]," Gee said. "I thought he was good. He didn't force things, he did some good things and scored the ball, and ultimately he made us pay for some defensive breakdowns we had.
 
"We just have to take more pride defensively. They're a very good offensive team, but we have to take more pride defensively. At halftime, we had some things figured out and we cut it to 13, but we could never get over that hump."
 
Those defensive breakdowns and a season-high 19 turnovers were ultimately Longwood's undoing despite another double-double from Nwogbo, who was a frequent visitor to the free throw line hitting 11-of-18 shots from the stripe. Nwogbo did not commit a single turnover in his 31 minutes of play despite getting touches on nearly every Longwood possession.
 
"I've said all year long, this is the most dominant player in the league," Gee said of Nwogbo. "He showed that tonight, and I felt like he really responded to the challenge of going up against John Brown. … He's dominant, and as he continues to get in better shape and condition and we improve the pieces around him, it'll help him. At this stage we need everybody to play well to compete at this level. We just didn't have that."
 
Nwogbo's double-double was his second of the season and one of nearly two in the game for Longwood, which also got 15 points and eight rebounds from Nwogbo's frontcourt counterpart Khris Lane. But while the Lancer post duo combined for more than 50 percent of the team's scoring and rebounding, High Point held the Big South's leading three-point shooting team to a season-low 16 three-point attempts. Longwood made seven of those, including two each from Isaac Belton and Chris Shields, but hit just 2-of-8 after the break.
 
"At the end of the day, we have to mop this up and move forward," Gee said. "We have a big game Saturday. They're in our house, and there's no place like home. We have to be like Dorothy and get back home."
 
Longwood will return to non-conference action Saturday against UMBC in Willett Hall, marking the team's return home after six consecutive road games. That will be the Lancers' lone home matchup until facing Cairn on Dec. 28 after another five-game road stretch.
 
"We've been gone for a while, and we need some of those Lancer Lunatics to really propel us," Gee said. "It's going to be a tough game on Saturday, like every game's going to be for us right now with the condition we're in. But like on Saturday in New York, we can pull some of those games out. Tonight just wasn't one of those games."
 
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