The Opening Tip
•   Prior to Saturday's tipoff, Longwood will honor its two-man senior class of
Darrion Allen and
Isaac Belton, as well as manager Matt Pulsifer, as part of the program's Senior Day ceremony. Allen and Belton were part of head coach
Jayson Gee's first recruiting class along with redshirt junior
Damarion Geter, who will return next season.
•   Longwood is locked into the No. 9 seed in the Big South Championship. The Lancers will play at either Campbell or Charleston Southern in next Tuesday's first round, depending on which earns the No. 8 seed.
•   Longwood is down to just seven available scholarship players after a rash of injuries.
Bryan Gee (overtraining syndrome),
Damarion Geter (foot),
Jahleem Montague (knee) and
Juan Munoz (knee) are all out with major injuries, while Kendrick Thompson is out for academic reasons.
Last Time Out
•   Liberty redshirt senior John Dawson scored all nine of his points after halftime to key a second-half run that propelled the second-place Flames past Longwood 61-45 Thursday evening at the Vines Center.
•   Dawson bounced back from a scoreless first half to hit two three-pointers and dish a pair of assists to engineer Liberty's 30-19 second-half run. That second-half surge was the continuation of the 10-2 run the Flames put together at the end of the first half to overcome a three-point Longwood lead.
•   Liberty kept Longwood in check from long range, as the Lancers knocked down just one of their 12 three-point attempts. That lone trey came from
Khris Lane, who scored a team-high 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
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Darrion Allen and
Isaiah Walton also added 10 points apiece for Longwood.
By The Numbers
•   Longwood seniors
Darrion Allen and
Isaac Belton will play their final home games in Willett Hall Saturday and will be honored before the game for Senior Day. Allen has played in 124 career games with 81 starts while amassing 1,082 points at an average of 8.7 points per game. He ranks second all-time in school history with a .814 (219-269) free throw percentage and 18th in career points.
•   Belton, meanwhile, has played in 98 career games with 10 starts, all of which have come this season. He is on pace to set career highs this year with 5.3 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 19.6 minutes per game. He also has a career-best five double-figure scoring games.
•   Last time out, Longwood dressed just seven players in a 61-45 loss at Liberty. Junior forward
Obi Romeo missed the game with an illness, leaving the already-short-handed Lancers with only six available scholarship players.
•   Longwood ranks second in the Big South with 4.1 blocks per game and has three players —
Khris Lane (1.2 bpg.),
JaShaun Smith (1.1), and
Darrion Allen (0.8) — ranked among the Big South's top 10 in blocks per game. Both Smith and Lane are on pace to crack Longwood's single-season top five in the Division I era for blocks per game.
•   Ravaged by injuries, the Lancers have leaned on the starting lineup to play 76.8 percent of the team's minutes this season. Three Longwood starters —
Darrion Allen (36.0 mpg.),
Khris Lane (34.2) and
Isaiah Walton (31.3) — all rank among the Big South's top 10 in minutes per game, including Allen who leads the conference.
•   Allen has been on the court for a team-high 1,009 minutes this season, which equates to 90.1 percent of Longwood's minutes this season.
•   Walton's 13.8 points per game this season rank as the second-best scoring clip for a first-year Longwood player in the Division I era.
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