The Opening Tip
•   The new era of Longwood men's basketball continues Friday as the Lancers head to Richmond for their first road game of the season.
•   The game will be the second as a college head coach for
Griff Aldrich, who is in his first season at Longwood. Aldrich comes to Longwood from UMBC where he served as Director of Recruiting & Program Development from 2016-18 and helped lead the Retrievers to the 2018 America East Championship and an NCAA Tournament win over No. 1 seed Virginia.
•   Aldrich's first Longwood team features eight returning letterwinners and two starters, including leading returning scorer
Isaiah Walton and sixth-year senior
Damarion Geter.
•   Friday night's game will be the second of two Longwood games in Richmond that day, as the Lancer women also play at VCU at 11 a.m.
Last Time Out
•   Longwood embarked on its first season under head coach
Griff Aldrich with an 84-56 win over Randolph in the season-opener Tuesday, showcasing a new-look up-tempo offense that produced the second-most points in a season-opener in the program's Division I era.
•   Led by 20 points from Preseason All-Big South guard
Isaiah Walton and a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double from sophomore
Jordan Cintron, the Lancers led by double digits for all but the first five minutes of the game.
•   Walton's 20 points came in just 20 minutes and made him one of four double-digit scorers for the Lancers, including Cintron and newcomers
Gus Okafor and Lorenzo "Shabooty" Phillips.
•   Longwood forced Randolph into 26 turnovers and converted those giveaways into 33 points. Phillips had four steals in his Longwood debut.
By The Numbers
•   Following Tuesday's 28-point win against Randolph, Longwood is off to a 1-0 start for the first time since 2015-16.
•   Led by
Isaiah Walton's 20 points, the Lancers had four players score in double figures Tuesday, including newcomers
Gus Okafor (14) and
Lorenzo Phillips (10), and sophomore
Jordan Cintron, who logged 13 points and 10 rebounds.
•   Okafor's 14 points came included four three-pointers and marked the third-highest scoring debut by a Longwood freshman in the Division I era. He finished 5-of-8 from the field and added five rebounds, a block and a pair of steals.
•   Longwood scored 33 points off 26 turnovers against Randolph. The Lancers racked up 16 steals in the win, thanks to four from Phillips and three each from Walton and Cintron.
•   The Lancers' 16 steals against Randolph were the fifth most in the program's Division I era and the most since the 2012-13 Lancers picked off 16 against Fairleigh Dickinson.
•   Longwood's bench pitched in 53 points Tuesday agianst Randolph, including double-digit performances from both Walton and Okafor. The Lancer bench shot .472 (17-of-36) from the floor.
•   Phillips, who played the bulk of his team-high 26 minutes as Longwood's point guard Tuesday, dished five assists without a single turnover against Randolph. Along with the 10 points he scored, his assists led to four three-points and produced 14 total points.
•   Last season
Isaiah Walton accounted for more than 20 percent of Longwood's scoring last season, averaging a career-high 15.6 points per game to rank 10th in the Big South in that category.
•   Additionally, grad student
Damarion Geter accounted for 20 percent of Longwood's rebounding last season and ranked fifth in the Big South with a career-high 7.3 rebounds per game last season.
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Series History
•   Longwood and Richmond meet for the fifth time in series history Friday in Richmond. All four of the previous meetings have taken place since Longwood began its transition to the Division I level in 2004, with Richmond winning each of the first four matchups.
•   Every game in the series has been played in Richmond with those games taking place during the 2005-06, 2006-07, 2009-10 and 2015-16 seasons.
•   The only player on Longwood's roster who remains from the last meeting in 2015 is graduate student
Damarion Geter, who missed that game and the entire 2015-16 season due to a shoulder injury.
•   Richmond has won each of the previous four matchups by double figures.
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