The Opening Tip
•   Longwood begins its first postseason under head coach
Griff Aldrich Tuesday, traveling to Commonwealth rival and No. 8 seed Hampton for a Big South Championship first round showdown.
•   The matchup sends Longwood to Hampton for the second time in the past two weeks after the Lancers fell 86-66 on Hampton's home floor on Feb. 21.
•   Longwood is 4-2 in the Big South Championship first round, having advanced to the quarterfinals in two of the past three conference tournaments.
•   Longwood is 5-6 in the Big South Championship since joining the conference in 2012-13.
•   In their first year under head coach
Griff Aldrich, the Lancers has won the second most games in the Division I era and the most since joining the Big South seven years ago.Â
•   Among Longwood 15 wins are five Big South victories that tied for the most conference wins since the Lancers joined the Big South in 2012-13.
Last Time Out
•   Playing in the finale of a breakthrough regular season under first-year head coach
Griff Aldrich, Longwood struggled to overcome a 21-point effort from D.J. Laster and fell 66-47 at Gardner-Webb Saturday afternoon at Paul Porter Arena.
•   The win completed a perfect 13-0 home record for the Runnin' Bulldogs, who also got 18 points from David Efianayi and a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double from freshman Jose Perez.Â
•   Gardner-Webb broke the game open with a 15-1 run over the final five minutes of the first half. That run flipped a two-point Longwood lead into a 33-21 Gardner-Webb advantage at halftime, and the Bulldogs led by no fewer than seven points the rest of the way.
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Jaylon Wilson, continuing his late-season breakout, led Longwood with 16 points over a career-high 34 minutes.
Jordan Cintron added 14 points and three steals off the bench.
By The Numbers
•   Longwood is 5-6 all-time in the Big South Championship, including 4-2 in the first round. The Lancers advanced to the quarterfinals in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2018.
•   Longwood has pulled off three first-round upsets in the Big South Championship, including last season when the 10-seed Lancers upended 7-seed High Point 68-55 on the road. Longwood also upset 4-seed UNC Asheville in the 2013 first round and 8-seed Presbyterian in the 2015 first round.
•   The Lancers are 2-2 when playing as the No. 9 seed in the Big South Championship. The Lancers advanced to the 2015 semifinals as the No. 9 seed after defeating 8-seed Presbyterian in the first round and 1-seed Charleston Southern in the quarterfinals.
•   In his last conference tournament appearance, Longwood head coach
Griff Aldrich helped UMBC Â win the 2018 America East Championship. The 2-seed Retrievers won three straight games in the tournament, including a 65-62 upset over top-seeded Vermont in the title game.
•   Point guard
Shabooty Phillips became the sixth Lancer to receive All-Big South recognition Monday 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 is the Big South's leading free throw shooter at 88.2 percent (97-of-110), which would rank as the fourth-highest single-season mark in school history.
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Jaylon Wilson has enjoyed his best eight-game stretch of the season of late, scoring in double figures in six of those games while averaging 14.1 points per game.Â
•   Longwood has broken school records with 294 made three-pointers and 856 attempted three-pointers this season.Â
Quotable
"When you get into the playoffs it really is win and advance, however you can do that. Where we are, we want to continue to build and get better, but when you get to the tournament, the goal really is to advance. You may play a terrible game, but if you win, it's onto the next one. Would you like to continue to be on an upward trajectory? No question, but the goal is to go 1-0 every day."
— Head coach
Griff Aldrich on his philosophy on coaching in the postseason
Series History
•   Longwood and Hampton will meet for the third time this season and second time in the past two weeks when they square off in the first round of the 2019 Big South Championship Tuesday in Hampton, Va.
•   Hampton owns a 6-1 lead in the series after taking both of the regular-season matchups this season, defeating Longwood 96-83 in Farmville on Jan. 30 and following up with an 86-66 win in Hampton on Feb. 21.
•   Hampton has shot .480 (24-of-50) from three-point range in the first two games this season.
•   Longwood head coach
Griff Aldrich is a native of the Tidewater area, and assistant coach
Brian Graves was an assistant at Hampton from 2016-18.
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