BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Dylan Poston poured in a career-high 22 points on his senior night to lift Gardner-Webb to an 81-71 win over Longwood Saturday evening at Paul Porter Arena.
 
Poston knocked down three of Gardner-Webb's 13 three-pointers on a night that started with a 12-0 run that put the Lancers (8-21, 4-12 Big South) in a hole they were never able to escape.
 
The senior Poston was one of four double-figure scorers for the Runnin' Bulldogs (15-14, 10-7 Big South), who got 16 points from Isaiah Ivey, 15 from Adonis Burbage and 10 from Tyrell Nelson. Poston, who scored just three points on 1-of-8 shooting from the field the last time the teams met in a 67-66 Gardner-Webb win on Jan. 2, scored in double figures in both halves Saturday as Gardner-Webb led by as many as 24 points before halftime.
 
"The story of the game was the start," said head coach Jayson Gee. "We weren't ready to go, and that's on me."
 
It took until the second half for Longwood to fight back into the game, outscoring Gardner-Webb 46-33 over the final 20 minutes, but the 23-point halftime deficit proved too much to overcome for an already shorthanded Longwood team playing without one of its leading scorers in Kanayo Obi-Rapu. The sophomore guard, who entered the matchup third on the team with 12.4 points per game and a team-high 59 three-pointers, was a late scratch due to an illness.
 
"Anytime you reduce your depth, it's a factor, particularly when it's a starter and one of your top scorers, but I thought the story of this game was the poor start in the first half," said head coach Jayson Gee. "We could just never make that up, and that's difficult to do on the road."
 
Without Obi-Rapu, Gee leaned heavily on a five-player rotation that saw all five starters play at least 30 minutes, including 40-minute ironman Shaquille Johnson who filled the stat sheet with 16 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, two steals and a block.
 
Despite Johnson's all-around performance, however, the slow start proved too much to overcome. The Lancers did not score their first points until 5:32 into the game, coming up empty on their first seven possessions with five missed field goals. That drought ended on a Khris Lane layup, but the Lancers spent the rest of the half chipping away at a deficit that ballooned to many as 24 points before the halftime buzzer.
 
Poston was key to that first-half breakout, scoring 11 points to complement Burbage and Ivey's 10 points apiece.
 
The tables turned in Longwood's favor after halftime, thanks in large part to a 26-12 rebounding margin, scoring production from Johnson and Darrion Allen and the post play of Lotanna Nwogbo and Khris Lane. Johnson scored 12 of his 16 points after halftime, Allen hit all three three-point attempts, and Nwogbo and Lane combined for 16 points and 13 boards.
 
"For us to be plus-13 on the glass tonight, I think that's representative of that bigger lineup we used," Gee said. "But again, I just think we were doomed by the first half. We didn't shoot free throws very well, but hey, that can happen. The story to this game was just that our start was subpar."
 
Nwogbo finished with his six straight double-double and Big South-leading 12th of the season, posting 14 points and 11 rebounds. Allen knocked down 5-of-7 three-pointers, giving him 23 treys over his past six games. Lane neared a double-double with 12 points and eight rebounds.
 
The 10-point loss is Longwood's biggest margin of defeat since an 88-74 loss at UNC Asheville on Jan. 30. Still within two games of a top-eight seed in the Big South Championship, the Lancers return to Willett Hall to face Presbyterian Thursday for Senior Night and the final home game of the season. The Lancers follow with the regular season finale at Radford on Feb. 27 and open the 2016 Big South postseason on March 3 in Buies Creek, N.C.

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