FARMVILLE, Va. – Prior to Longwood's preseason opener Saturday, fourth-year head coach Jayson Gee delivered a pregame speech in which he charged his rookies to be humble and selfless for the benefit of the program.
 
Newcomer Isaiah Walton heard him loud and clear.
 
Just minutes after flirting with a triple-double in his Longwood debut, the redshirt sophomore transfer was still in awe of having just played his first Division I game more than two years after his high school graduation.
 
"I'm just so blessed to be here at Longwood," said Walton, who redshirted as a freshman at UC Davis before transferring to Iowa Western Community College as a sophomore. "I feel like this is a great learning experience for my first game. I just tried to really enjoy myself and have fun. I'm really glad we came out with the win tonight."
 
Despite his humble postgame comments, Walton was anything but humble on the floor. In his Division I debut, the 6-4, 185-pound combo guard stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and four steals as part of a guard-led effort that pushed the Lancers to a 93-85 overtime win against Division III Hampden-Sydney in a sold-out Willett Hall in the Lancers' lone preseason exhibition.
 
Walton formed part of a three-headed backcourt monster alongside 24-point scorer Darrion Allen and 12-point scorer Kendrick Thompson, the three of which combined to pour in more than half of Longwood's points in a late comeback that saw the new-look Lancers erase a 10-point deficit in the final seven minutes of regulation.
 
Allen, Walton and Thompson all played at least 35 minutes and fronted a press defense that forced Hampden-Sydney into seven turnovers on their final 15 possessions of regulation. That late defensive surge, which also included a pair of steals from redshirt junior forward Damarion Geter, allowed Longwood to rally with a 17-7 run that tied the score at 74-74 to force overtime.
 
Hampden-Sydney had two chances to reclaim the lead with just 1.2 seconds to play, but forward Josh Katowitz missed both free throws after drawing a contact foul from Thompson in the midst of a mob scrambling for a rebound on Logan Samuels' desperation final shot for the Tigers.
 
"Give Hampden-Sydney credit; they're playing at an all-time emotional high, they're making shots, playing really good basketball," said Longwood head coach Jayson Gee. "They were really prepared. Hats off to coach Vick and his team for the fight they showed and how ready they were for this game."
 
Unfortunately for the upset-minded Tigers, those back-to-back miscues swung the momentum completely in Longwood's favor in the extra period. Allen made a statement just 17 seconds into overtime by hitting his second three-pointer of the night, sparking the Lancers to a 19-11 advantage over the game's final five minutes. Longwood hit 5-of-7 shots from the field in extra time, including Allen's trey and another three-pointer from 6-6 forward Khris Lane that pushed the lead to seven points with 1:03 to play.
 
"We just all came together and said times aren't always going to be good, and times of adversity are what define you," said Walton, whose eight assists led to 19 points. "We all had to get level-headed, come together and regroup. We really showed something by getting back out there and getting the job done. I'm really proud of our guys."
 
The preseason win showcased a portion of a Longwood lineup that welcomed nine newcomers in the offseason, though Thompson and Walton were the only two of those to play in the 45-minute affair. That lack of familiarity showed itself in the paint where Hampden-Sydney forward Guilherme Guimaraes torched the Lancers for 30 points and 12 rebounds while hitting 14-of-15 shots from the field.
 
"The big thing is we're still new," said fourth-year Longwood head coach Jayson Gee. "We're playing in different spots and different positions. We have to get better at covering down and handling dribble penetration. If we let teams penetrate our gut, it frees it up for the big guy. Guimaraes was 14-for-15 from the field, but he shot mostly layups. When you give a guy that many shots at the basket, it's difficult to hold him off."
 
Guimaraes nearly willed the Tigers to victory with a 16-point second half in which he hit all seven shots he took. However, his open looks evaporated over the final five minutes of regulation as the Lancers held him and the entire Tigers roster without a field goal during their game-tying 17-7 run.
 
"We picked up the defensive intensity and started pressing," said 6-8 sophomore forward Chris Shields, who scored 14 points as one of Longwood's five double-figure scorers. "We changed to a quicker lineup so we could press more, and once we did that, we got some stops."
 
Key to the full-court press was Longwood's bench, which deployed just three guards in Thompson, Walton and senior captain Isaac Belton, who added eight points in just 14 minutes. Those three combined for 36 points and eight steals, part of an 18-steal night for the Lancers who forced Hampden-Sydney into 27 turnovers.  
 
"The press certainly won the game for us," Gee said. "We had every opportunity not to win that game, but the pressure and the way we stole the ball and got them off balance really gave us a momentum swing. The press really put them on their heels, and when it was all said and done, we were able to get it done."
 
The exhibition win signals the end of the preseason for the Lancers, who open the 2016-17 regular season Sunday with a 2 p.m. home matchup against Maine in Willett Hall. That precedes Longwood's ESPN2 debut against Stephen F. Austin on Nov. 15 in Nacogdoches, Texas, as part of the ESPN College Basketball Tip-Off Marathon.
 
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