BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Campbell guard Chris Clemons scored a game-high 25 points to maintain his foothold atop the Big South scoring leaderboard and lead the Fighting Camels to an 88-54 win over Longwood Saturday afternoon at the Pope Convocation Center.
 
The Big South Preseason Player of the Year, Clemons continued his push to bring the conference's preseason predictions to fruition, posting his league-leading 15th 20-point game to lead Campbell (15-13, 8-6 Big South) to its second straight win and fourth in the team's past five home games.
 
The 5-9, 180-pound junior shot 10-of-18 from the floor and 5-of-10 from three-point range while adding a team-high eight rebounds and three assists. He scored 16 of those points in the first half and ignited a game-breaking rally that saw Campbell turn an early deficit into a double-digit lead following a 23-3 run.
 
"They were dead-on in terms of their ability to shoot the basketball," Longwood head coach Jayson Gee said. "We got off to a sluggish start. It looked like we had the flu out there. They took full advantage of that."
 
Longwood (6-21, 3-11 Big South) entered the game with the Big South's top three-point defense, but that made little difference to the Clemons-led Camels, who hit 16-of-37 treys and shot better than 40 percent in both halves. That sharp-shooting effort from beyond the arc was a drastic turnaround from the teams' first meeting of the season, in which Longwood held Campbell to a .172 (5-of-29) clip from three-point range en route to a 76-62 win in Farmville.
 
The difference in Saturday's rematch came from Clemons' backcourt mates, as guards Cory Gensler and Jordan Whitfield hit three three-pointers each and combined for 20 points and nine assists.
 
"Clemons only scored 25, but it felt like 45, but what really hurt us was Gensler and his ability to shoot the basketball," Gee said. "He made shots early, and that really set the tone. Once they spread our defense out, it made the back doors open. It was the perfect storm.
 
"Our inability to shut down the three like we did the first game, it opened up opportunities for them to get back-door layups. It's difficult to take away both."
 
Campbell center Andrew Eudy took advantage of the attention Longwood was forced to pay to the perimeter, scoring 18 points and dishing eight assists while finishing 7-of-8 from the floor. He and forward Marcus Burk – a starter making a rare appearance off the bench – joined Clemons and Whitfield in double figures, as Burk finished with 11 points in 17 minutes.
 
After giving up Campbell's early rally, the Lancers were forced to play catch-up ball and unleashed 28 three-pointers, their third-most in a game this season. They hit 10 of those – including three each from double-digit scorers B.K. Ashe and Isaiah Walton – but struggled shootingt from inside the arc.
 
"We were 1-for-11 inside the three to start the half, and that's usually not us," Gee said. "We're not a terrific three-point shooting team, but we're not a 1-for-11 shooting team either. I really believe that set the tone, and once our offense isn't going, it's a domino effect. This just wasn't our night."
 
Ashe and Walton finished with 12 and 13 points, respectively, while forward Damarion Geter neared a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. Freshman Kamil Chapman added eight points off the bench and now has four three-point plays – including his two made three-pointers Saturday – in his past two games.
 
"At the end of the day, when you're going through this tough stretch, you have to find a way to muster up some mental toughness," Gee said. "We failed in that today. When you fail at that, everything else shuts down."
 
The Lancers will now return home to Willett Hall Thursday to host Charleston Southern in the first of their final two home games of the year. Following the 7 p.m. showdown against the Buccaneers, Longwood will close out the 2017-18 regular season at Winthrop on Feb. 18, at High Point on Feb. 22 and home against Radford on Feb. 24.
 
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