The Opening Tip
• Longwood will embark on a stretch of six consecutive road games beginning Monday at Northern Illinois. The game is part of the Collegiate Hoops Roadshow, an early-season tournament that also sends Longwood to UC Riverside and Pacific on Nov. 26 and 29.
• Monday's game is Longwood's fourth in a span of seven days. The Lancers are 3-0 during that stretch so far with all three of those wins coming at home in Willett Hall. The Lancers outscored those three foes by an average of 21.3 points per game.
• Longwood's 4-1 record is tied for the best five-game start of the program's Division I era, matching last season's 4-1 record.
• Longwood has deployed a deep rotation this season, using at least 10 players in every game. Eight Lancers are averaging at least 5.0 points per game with
Christian Wilson (11.4) and
Jaylon Wilson (11.0 ppg.) both averaging double figures.
Last Time Out
• The Lancers capped a gauntlet of a homestand with their third straight win in Willett Hall Friday night, 78-53 over Division-III Randolph.
• The win improved the Lancers to 4-0 on their home court and made them only the ninth team in program history to win four of their first five games, joining last year's squad on that list.
• Freshman forward
Leslie Nkereuwem broke out for 13 points to match fellow newcomer
Christian Wilson for the team scoring lead.
• Nkereuwem finished 4-of-5 from the field with a pair of dunks and added five rebounds, three of which were on the offensive glass.
• In an uncharacteristic off-shooting night, Longwood made up for a 5-of-19 performance from three-point range with 38 points in the paint and 23 second-chance points.
•
Jordan Cintron grabbed a career-high 12 boards as Longwood outrebounded Randolph 51-29.
By The Numbers
• Fresh off a 3-0 homestand in Willett Hall, the Lancer embarks on a six-game road swing that is their longest road stretch of the season. Those six road games will take Longwood into mid-December and take place in three different time zones and five different states.
• At 4-1 to start the year, the 2019-20 Lancers have matched last year's team for the best five-game start of the program's Division I era. Only three other Longwood teams have jumped out of the gate with a better record, and none since the 2000-01 team opened the year 5-0. Of the seven Longwood teams to win at least four of their five games, four finished above .500.
• The Lancers have been balanced offensively this season, averaging 32.0 points per game in the paint and 27.0 per game from three-point range.
• Longwood is 14-5 at home in its two seasons under head coach
Griff Aldrich. The Lancers are 4-0 in Willett Hall for the second straight season.
• Dating back to 2018-19, Longwood is 6-4 when senior guards
Shabooty Phillips and
Jaylon Wilson score in double figures together.
•
Jaylon Wilson has scored at least 10 points in 12 of his past 16 games and is averaging a team-high 14.3 points per game during that stretch. He has scored in double figures four times this season.
•
JaShaun Smith has hit 100 three-pointers in his four-year career and sits atop Longwood's all-time three-point shooting percentage list with a .391 (100-of-25) clip. He has hit at least one trey in eight consecutive games and is 6-of-9 from beyond the arc this season.
• Forward
Christian Wilson is Longwood's leading scorer and has done so off the bench, averaging 11.4 points per game. He has scored in double figures in four of his first five games at the Division I level and leads the team with nine made treys.
• Longwood's team is the tallest in school history with an average height of 6-foot-4. Nine of the team's 14 players are 6-5 or taller.
Quotable
"It's tough, but it's asked of us and it's expected of us. It's like coming to work: You have to show up and do your job every day. We have to be professional about it, so that's how we take it."
— Senior guard
Sean Flood on Longwood's stretch of four games in seven days
Series History
• Longwood and Northern Illinois meet for the first time Monday evening in DeKalb, Ill.
• Longwood is just eight months removed from its last trip to The Prairie State when they took DePaul to the wire in the quarterfinals of the 2019 College Basketball Invitational in Chicago, Ill.
• Longwood is an auxiliary member of the Mid-American Conference in field hockey after the Lancer program joined the league in 2014. Longwood field hockey reached the semifinals of the 2019 MAC Field Hockey Championship this season.
#GoWood
