The Opening Tip
• In its fifth consecutive road game, Longwood heads to Baltimore, Md., to face Morgan State Saturday at 2 p.m.
• The return to Maryland will be a homecoming for Longwood freshman
Heru Bligen (Prince George's County) and graduate assistant coach
Nick Sparacino (Silver Spring), both of whom hail from the Old Line State.
• The game will also be a pseudo-homecoming for head coach
Griff Aldrich, who spent two seasons on staff at UMBC in Baltimore as the Director of Program Development & Recruiting under Ryan Odom. In that role, Aldrich was a key part of UMBC's turnaround that culminated in the 2018 America East Championship and a historic NCAA first-round upset over No. 1 seed Virginia.
• 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 has held opponents to a conference-low 63.2 points per game.
Last Time Out
• Seventeen points Devin Haygood and a 16-4 run over the game's final 5:45 put North Carolina A&T over the top in a defensive battle against Longwood Wednesday at Corbett Sports Center.
• With points hard to come by on both ends of the floor throughout the 40-minute slugfest, Haygood sparked North Carolina A&T's end-game rally with a go-ahead jumper that erased Longwood's 37-36 lead and sent the Aggies into their most efficient offensive spurt of the night.
• After shooting just .366 (14-of-41) from the floor through the first 34 minutes of the game against Longwood's Big South-leading defense, N.C. A&T hit 5-of-8 shots during the game-winning run.
• Along with
Shabooty Phillips' team-high 10 points,
Juan Munoz contributed five points, five rebounds, five assists and a career-high four steals for Longwood.
DeShaun Wade added seven points and six rebounds off the bench as Longwood's reserves scored 25 points.
By The Numbers
• Longwood has yet to allow an opposing player to reach 20 points in a game this season.
• Longwood is one of only two teams in the Big South to have held every opposing team under 80 points this season. Lancer opponents have reached 80 points in just nine of head coach
Griff Aldrich's 43 games at the helm.
• The Lancers are among the Big South's top defensive teams, leading the conference in scoring defense (63.2) and ranking third in opponent field percentage (.409) and opponent three-point field goal percentage (.312).
• 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 8.6 points per game, while Wade ranks third on that list with 82 points per game. Both have come off the bench in every game this season, and the two have four double-figure scoring games apiece.
• 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 88 assists, 62 have led to three-pointers. Point guard
Juan Munoz has dished a team-high 19 of those, while
Shabooty Phillips has recorded 11.
• Senior forward
JaShaun Smith is just 167 points shy of reaching 1,000 for his career. He would become the 23rd player in program history to hit that milestone.
• Longwood is 3-1 this season when senior guard
Jaylon Wilson scores in double figures.
• Longwood's bench averages 33.2 points per game, which is more than half of the team's scoring. The group has scored at least 25 points in eight of nine games this season.
Quotable
"When we're at our best, we're one of the toughest teams in the Big South because we compete so hard, we play together and we're all for each other. We don't have one selfish person on this team. Every day we look at each other and tell each other we're going to get better. That's what we're going to keep doing."
— Redshirt sophomore guard
Juan Munoz
Series History
• Renewing a series for the first time since the 2007-08 season, Longwood will face Morgan State Saturday in Baltimore, Md.
• The series is tied at 1-1 with Longwood taking the opener 75-73 in Feb. 3, 2007, and Morgan State returning the favor with a 76-51 win the following season on Dec. 21, 2007.
• Both teams picked up their lone wins in the series on their home turf.
• Morgan State 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 and fell at North Carolina A&T 52-41 this past Wednesday.
#GoWood
