FARMVILLE, Va. – The Flood warning was in full effect Friday night in Willett Hall.
 
Junior point guard Seán Flood made it rain three-pointers, hitting 5-of-6 shots from beyond the arc en route to a career-high 21 points that propelled Longwood (9-5) to a 77-63 win over Stetson (3-11) and kept the Lancers undefeated on their home floor.
 
Flood hit two of those three-pointers within the first six minutes of the game to spark a team-wide downpour that saw Longwood drain a season-high 17-of-32 treys. Fellow junior guard Jaylon Wilson finished 4-of-5 beyond the arc, and redshirt sophomore guard Juan Munoz hit all three of his long-range attempts, while seven different Lancers hit a three-pointer.
 
The 17 three-pointers were the second most in Longwood's Division I era, trailing only the school-record 20 Longwood hit against VMI on Dec. 12, 2011.
 
The win is the latest in a historic start to 2018-19 for the Lancers, who are now 6-0 on their home floor and off to the program's best 14-game start since the 2000-01 Lancers opened the year 11-3. Longwood has secured a winning non-conference record for the first time since joining the Big South in 2012-13 and has done so while going 4-1 in games following a loss this season.
 
Longwood's latest bounceback came after Cornell put on a similar shooting clinic this past Monday, hitting 16-of-32 three-pointers on the way to a 70-64 win in Ithaca, N.Y.
 
"We've been going two-a-days since we've been off for Christmas," Flood said. "We've been coming in early to get some shooting done and some dry work where we're not going live, just running through our offense 5-on-0. Then later on in the day going into practice, it's difficult, but we've seemed to adapt to it. It's tough waking up early and then having to come back for a second practice, but obviously it stood out in how we played today."
 
Flood was the beneficiary of many open looks on the perimeter as part of a crisp effort that saw the Lancers rack up 18 assists compared to just 11 turnovers and shoot 50.0 percent (25-of-50) from the floor. Flood's fellow newcomer Shabooty Phillips figured heavily into those numbers, dishing six assists in his 23 turnover-free minutes, all of which led to made three-pointers – two to Flood, two to Wilson and one each to Damarion Geter and Isaiah Walton.
 
"Quite simply, it's something we've been working on a lot," said Longwood head coach Aldrich, whose 9-5 start trails only Cal Luther's 10-4 record in 1981-82 for the best 14-game opening by a first-year Longwood head coach.
 
"We shoot a lot of threes to begin with, but we track contested and uncontested threes, and honestly I don't think many of our threes were contested tonight. Shabooty took a few I didn't love in the first half, and Juan I think made one that was at the end of the shot clock, but honestly I think most were uncontested. They came off of good ball movement, paint touches, and the other thing I think you saw was the ball wasn't sticking."
 
Geter added five assists of his own and got in on the barrage with a three-pointer that was only the eighth of his six-year career. JaShaun Smith also hit a three as part of an 11-point performance in which he hit 5-of-7 shots from the floor, including several knifing drives to the basket.
 
Longwood took the lead for good just 66 seconds into the game and outpaced a Stetson offense that also shot well from three-point range, hitting 12-of-26 threes of their own. Marques Sumner and Leo Goodman both hit four apiece and finished in double figures with a combined 26 points.
 
However, the Lancers forced Stetson into 14 turnovers and converted those giveaways into 17 points.
 
"We get wide-open looks when we get out in transition, and we always say it starts with our defense,' Flood said. "We play some good D, got a rebound or a steal, and then we get out in transition. Then when we're out there, we get open looks. Shabooty found me, other people found me, found each other, and it just goes from there.
 
"Eighteen assists today is near our high on the season, so we shared the ball well, we shot the ball well. It just starts when we get out on the break, get them in scramble and get the ball moving."
 
Friday's game is Longwood's last in Willett Hall in 2018, as the Lancers will get an eight-day break for the holidays before wrapping up the 2018 calendar year and non-conference play at The Citadel on Dec. 29. Longwood will then ring in the new year with a road trip to reigning Big South champion Radford, taking on the Highlanders in Radford, Va., on Jan. 5.
 
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