The Opening Tip
• Coming off back-to-back losses for only the second time under head coach
Griff Aldrich, Longwood looks to get back on track Thursday against Big South rival High Point in Willett Hall.
• Both High Point and Longwood are under the leadership of head coaches in their first year at their respective schools, though both come from drastically different backgrounds. High Point's Tubby Smith is a coaching veteran of more than three decades who has 607 wins and a national championship to his name, while Longwood's Aldrich is in his first year as a head coach after leaving a nearly two-decades career in the private sector as an attorney and corporate executive.
• Longwood is 7-2 in Willett Hall this year. The Lancers won their first seven games at home under Aldrich before dropping the last two, 101-91 against Charleston Southern and 72-59 against Big South preseason No. 1 Radford.
Last Time Out
• In a rematch of a Commonwealth rivalry that saw Radford overcome a 12-point deficit to win the first matchup 71-64 in Radford, Va., the Highlanders rode 21 points from Carlik Jones to get the better of Longwood again and pull out a 72-59 win Monday in Willett Hall.
• Jones shot 9-of-12 from the floor and committed just one turnover in his 33 minutes of action.
• Jones poured in 14 of those 21 points in the second half ignited a 15-3 run during a five-minute span early in the second half that ballooned Radford's 48-44 lead to double digits for the duration.
• Ed Polite Jr. stuffed the box score for Radford, finishing with 13 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal.
• Longwood guard
Isaiah Walton scored a game-high 26 points, netting 21 of those during a first half flurry that sent Longwood into halftime trailing 36-34.
By The Numbers
• Longwood's
Griff Aldrich and High Point's Tubby Smith are two of the winningest coaches in the first year at their institution this season. Aldrich ranks 13th among the 55 newly-appointed head coaches with a .571 (12-9) winning percentage, while Smith ranks 15th at .556 (10-8).
• In six career games against Winthrop, graduate student
Damarion Geter boasts an .800 (16-of-20) field goal percentage.
• Geter recorded his 100th career block this season, becoming only the fourth player in school history to reach that mark, and is just 19 rebounds shy of reaching 600 for his career. He would be only Longwood's seventh to reach that benchmark and third to hit both 100 blocks and 600 rebounds.
• Junior guard Sean Flood has hit a three-pointer in 12 consecutive games. Of his 46 made field goals, 34 have come from long range.
• Longwood's point guard duo of
Shabooty Phillips and Sean Flood has combined for 121 assists and just 73 turnovers, good for a 1.66 assist-to-turnover ratio. They are also shooting a combined .376 (82-of-214) from three-point range and have accounted for 40 percent of Longwood's triples.
• Longwood leads the Big South in both opponent scoring average (66.8 oppg.) and opponent field goal percentage (.394).
• Longwood enters Monday's game 6-2 in games following a loss, having lost back-to-back games just once all season.
• Of Phillips' four 20-point games this season, three have come in games following a loss.
• Longwood has held five of its past seven opponents under 30.0 percent shooting from three-point range.
•
Isaiah Walton has scored at least 20 points in eight of his 13 games this season, leading Longwood to a 6-2 record in those outbursts.
Quotable
"Longwood has to be a team that's diving on the floor, and we didn't do that. As one of the players in our locker room said, it has to mean more to us. He's right – the effort is good, but we as a program still have to develop a competitive fire. That's not always easy to do."
— Head coach
Griff Aldrich following Longwood's 72-59 loss against reigning Big South champion Radford Monday in Willett Hall
Series History
• Longwood and High Point meet for the first time this season and 43rd time in series history Thursday in Willett Hall. High Point holds a 23-9 advantage in the series, which began on Dec. 1, 1994.
• The matchup will be the first between the teams since Longwood ended High Point's season in last year's Big South Championship first round, pulling out a 68-55 win on the Panthers' home court.
• High Point is 11-2 against Longwood since the Lancers joined the Big South in 2012-13.
• Longwood is yet to defeat High Point in Willett Hall since joining the Big South. The Panthers are 5-0 against the Lancers in those games.
#GoWood
