The Opening Tip
•   Longwood will play on the East Coast for the first time since Nov. 15 Wednesday night at North Carolina A&T. The matchup follows three straight games in different time zones for the Lancers, who have played at Northern Illinois, UC Riverside and Pacific in consecutive games.Â
•   After opening the season 4-0 at home, Longwood is midway through a six-game road swing. That stretch began on Nov. 18 and has the Lancers playing away from home for a full month.
•   The Lancers are one of only two teams in the Big South to have not allowed an opponent to score 80 points this season. Longwood leads the conference in scoring defense, holding opponents to 64.6 points per game.
•   The 2019-20 Longwood basketball team is the tallest in program history with an average height of 6-4. Nine of the team's 15 players are 6-5 or taller, including the 6-11 and 6-10 duo of
Abraham Deng and
Ilija Stefanovic.
Last Time Out
•   Behind a game-high 17 points from Gary Chivichyan, Pacific extended its nearly perfect home-court campaign at Longwood's expense, pulling away from the Lancers 69-51 Friday to improve to 6-1 at the Spanos Center.
•   Chivichyan spearheaded a strong shooting performance from the Tigers, finishing 7-of-14 from the floor with three three-pointers to solve a Lancer defense that entered the matchup as the Big South leader in opponent scoring average and second in both field goal defense and three-point field goal defense.
•   Chivichyan was one of four double-figure scorers for the Tigers, who hit a season-high 12 three-pointers against Longwood's vaunted three-point defense.
•   Longwood got 10 points and three blocks from
JaShaun Smith along with 29 points from the bench.
DeShaun Wade and
Christian Wilson both scored eight points off the bench.
By The Numbers
•   Longwood has two of the Big South's top three bench scorers in sophomores
DeShaun Wade and
Christian Wilson. Wilson is the No. 2 scoring reserve in the Big South at 9.4 points per game, while Wade ranks third on that list with 8.4 points per game. Both have come off the bench in every game this season, and the two have four double-figure scoring games apiece.
•   Since taking over as head coach in 2018-19, Longwood head coach
Griff Aldrich has led the Lancers to 13 more wins than the 2017-18 season (7-26). That plus-13 improvement is tied for the second-largest turnaround of all D-I head coaches who were hired along with Aldrich in 2018-19.
•   Longwood has had a run of at least 9-0 in seven of eight games this season. The largest of those was a 15-0 rally in the opener against Marymount.
•   The Lancers are among the Big South's top defensive teams, leading the conference in scoring defense (64.6) and ranking third in opponent field percentage (.412) and fifth in opponent three-point field goal percentage (.325).
•   Longwood is one of only two teams in the Big South to have held every opponent under 80 points this season. Lancer opponents have reached 80 points in just nine of head coach
Griff Aldrich's 42 games at the helm.
•   Longwood has also yet to allow an opposing player to score 20 points this season.
•   Longwood is 14-5 at home in its two seasons under Aldrich. The Lancers are 4-0 in Willett Hall for the second straight season and have won five straight on their home floor.
•   Of Longwood's 81 assists, 57 have led to three-pointers. Point guard
Juan Munoz has dished a team-high 16 of those, while
Shabooty Phillips has recorded 11.Â
Quotable
"We have a lot of work to do, and we have a long way to go to be the team we want to be. But I believe in these guys, and I believe in what they can accomplish."
— Head coach
Griff Aldrich following the 69-51 loss at Pacific
Series History
•   Renewing a series for the first time since the 2013-14 season, Longwood will face North Carolina A&T Wednesday in Greensboro, N.C.
•   The Aggies hold a 2-1 advantage in the series, which began in Longwood's second year of transition to the Division I level in 2005-06. Longwood won that inaugural meeting 83-77, and North Carolina A&T has taken the past two matchups 85-78 in 2006-07 and 85-78 in 2013-14.Â
•   North Carolina A&T is one of three MEAC teams Longwood will face in 2019-20, the others being Maryland Eastern Shore and Morgan State. The Lancers defeated UMES 85-55 on Nov. 12 for their third straight win over a MEAC school.
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