The Opening Tip
•   Longwood hits the road for the first time in 2019-20 to renew a fledging Commonwealth rivalry against George Mason. The Lancers last faced the Patriots on Dec. 19, 2015, also in Fairfax.
•   The Lancers entered 2019-20 following the program's first-ever Division I postseason appearance. Last year Longwood received a bid to the Roman College Basketball Invitational where they reached the quarterfinals after a first-round win over Southern Miss.
•   Three starters and seven letterwinners return from last year's squad, including the senior quartet of
Sean Flood,
Shabooty Phillips,
JaShaun Smith and
Jaylon Wilson. Those four accounted for 54 percent of Longwood's scoring and 59 percent of the team's assists in 2018-19.
•   The Lancers earned the No. 6 spot in the Big South Preseason Coaches and Media Poll, tying Longwood's highest Big South preseason ranking.
Last Time Out
•   Longwood won its season opener against Marymount 73-51 behind an efficient shooting performance and a widespread scoring effort from nearly its entire roster.
•   The Lancers shot .617 (29-of-47) from the field and saw four players scoring in double figures. Leading that group was sophomore
Christian Wilson, who scored 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting, along with
Jordan Cintron,
DeShaun Wade and
Jaylon Wilson, who all scored 10 apiece.
•   Freshman forward
Leslie Nkereuwem amassed 11 rebounds in his collegiate debut, including three offensive boards. He led the team with 27 minutes played as well.
•   Redshirt sophomore guard
Juan Munoz dished a career-high seven assists off the bench.
•   Longwood's bench contributed 38 points, thanks in large part to Wilson and Wade — both newcomers — who combined for 22 points.
By The Numbers
•   Longwood's offense put together one of the most efficient shooting performances of the program's Division I era in Tuesday's season opener, shooting .617 (29-of-47) from the field against Marymount. That is only the 10th time in the past 14 years the Lancers have shot better than 60.0 percent from the floor.
•   The Lancers deployed 12 players in Tuesday's win over Marymount with 10 of those accruing at least 10 minutes on the court. Freshman forward
Leslie Nkereuwem played a team-high 27 minutes, all off the bench.
•   Longwood's bench contributed 52.1 percent of the team's scoring against Marymount with newcomers
DeShaun Wade (10 points) and
Christian Wilson (12) both scoring in double figures.
•   This season Longwood's roster includes four seniors, tied for the third most of any Big South team. Those four —
Sean Flood,
Shabooty Phillips,
Jaylon Wilson and
JaShaun Smith — all averaged more than 21.0 minutes per game each last season and finished the year as Longwood's top four scorers.
•   Phillips, a Preseason All-Big South selection, was paramount to Longwood's three-point onslaught in 2018-19, hitting 74 himself while assisting on 93 others. He had a hand in more than 50 percent of Longwood's school-record 333 three-pointers.
•   Junior forward
JaShaun Smith is just 225 points shy of reaching 1,000 for his career. He would be the 23rd Longwood player to hit that milestone.
•   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, including the 6-10
Ilija Stefanovic and 6-11
Abraham Deng.
•  Â
Jaylon Wilson has scored in double figures in nine of his past 12 games dating back to last season. He is averaging 14.9 points per game in that span.
Quotable
"We really are right now blessed with a lot of depth. You take one guy off, and it's not like there's a huge drop-off in talent or skill. That's a huge blessing that we have right now. I think that's going to probably be one of the calling cards for this team."
— Head coach
Griff Aldrich after Tuesday's win over Marymount
Series History
•   Longwood and George Mason renew an in-state series that began just four seasons ago. George Mason took the opener in the debut meeting in the series, 75-70 on Dec. 19, 2015.
•   That game took place on the Patriots' home court at EagleBank Arena and saw George Mason hold off a late Lancer rally that cut the score to one possession in the final minute of the game. However, George Mason hit 6-of-8 free throws in the game's final stretch to pull away.
•   George Mason's DeAndre Abram (24 points) and Longwood's Shaquille Johnson (23 points) both scored 20 points that night.
#GoWood
