Longwood University Athletics

Roman College Basketball Invitational (First Round) Game 33: Longwood (15-17) vs. Southern Miss (20-12)
Date	Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Time	7 p.m.
Location	Farmville, Va. (Willett Hall)
Game Notes	Longwood (PDF) | Southern Miss (PDF) | Big South
Bracket	2019 Roman College Basketball Invitational Bracket (PDF)
Statistics	Longwood (HTML) | Southern Miss (PDF)
Live Stats	Longwood Live Stats
Radio	WVHL 92.9 FM Kickin' Country
Video/TV	ESPN+
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodMBB

The Opening Tip
•    Longwood will play in its first postseason tournament of the program's 15-year Division I era Wednesday night, hosting Southern Miss in the first round of the 2019 Roman College Basketball Invitational at 7 p.m. in Willett Hall.
•    The Lancers enter the tournament with the second-most wins of the program's D-I era, their highest KenPom.com ranking of the D-I era, and a 9-5 record in Willett Hall. 
•    Longwood first-year head coach Griff Aldrich is a finalist for the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year award after leading the Lancers to an eight-win improvement from one year ago. 
•    Led by Big South Newcomer of the Year Shabooty Phillips, Longwood set school records for made three-pointers (302) this season. Phillips has a team-leading 67 three-pointers.
•    Longwood faculty, staff and students will receive free admission to Wednesday's game.

Last Time Out
•    The 9-seed Lancers took 8-seed Hampton to the wire but fell short of a road upset in a 77-71 loss in the Big South Championship first round at the Hampton Convocation Center.
•    Hampton All-Big South first team guard Jermaine Marrow carried the Pirates with 28 points and six assists to hold off a Longwood team that tied the game with 4:54 to play and trailed just 72-69 with 22 seconds left.
•    Clutch free throw shooting and a timely three-point play by Greg Heckstall helped the Pirates survive that late comeback in which Longwood hit four consecutive layups in the final minute, including two from Juan Munoz in a span of 11 seconds.
•    Jaylon Wilson scored a team-high 23 points to continue his end-of-season breakout, scoring in double figures for the seventh time in his past nine games. JaShaun Smith also added 13 points, and Shabooty Phillips scored 12.

By The Numbers
•    In his last postseason tournament appearance, Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich helped America East champion UMBC pull off the historic upset of No. 1 national seed Virginia in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament. 
•    Wednesday's game will be Longwood's first non-conference postseason appearance since the 2000-01 Lancers reached the second round of the 2001 NCAA Division II Tournament. Longwood is 5-6 all-time in the postseason, doing so in four different NCAA Tournaments since the program's inaugural season in 1976.
•    Aldrich is one of 12 finalists for the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year award, which goes to the top first-year head coach in the nation.
•    Point guard Shabooty Phillips became the sixth Lancer to receive All-Big South recognition when he was named to the honorable mention team. Of the 15 players on the All-Big South roster, Phillips was the only newcomer to his team.
•    Phillips was also pegged as the Big South Newcomer of the Year by Three-Man-Weave.com. 
•    Jaylon Wilson has enjoyed his best nine-game stretch of the entering Wednesday's game, scoring in double figures in seven of those outings while averaging a team-best 15.1 points per game.
•    Wilson, who missed the first 11 games of the season due to a broken hand, has two 20-point outbursts in his past four games, including 23 points in the first round of the 2019 Big South Championship tournament.
•    Longwood has broken school records with 302 made three-pointers and 878 attempted three-pointers this season. 
•    Longwood is 9-5 in Willett Hall this season, the best home record since the Lancers joined the Big South in 2012-13. The Lancers opened the year 7-0 on their home floor.

Quotable
"I could not be happier for our players and staff. To play in the postseason in our first year is a true testament to their hard work, commitment and desire to improve every day. We look forward to continuing to take another step forward as a program."
— Head coach Griff Aldrich on Longwood's first D-I postseason bid

Series History
•    Longwood and Southern Miss meet for the first time in series history Wednesday in the first round of the 2019 Roman College Basketball Invitational.
•    Southern Miss will be the second Conference USA team Longwood has faced this season. The Lancers played at Charlotte in their fifth game of the year, suffering a 42-39 defeat on Charlotte's home floor on Nov. 19.

#GoWood