FARMVILLE, Va. – In a matchup between the league's No. 2 and No. 3 defensive teams, Campbell held sharpshooting Longwood in check and broke through the Lancers' own staunch defenses late to outlast the Lancers 68-58 Saturday afternoon at Gore Arena.
 
Sparked by the interior presence of Cedric Henderson and stifling on-ball efforts of Cory Gensler, Campbell held Longwood to just six three-pointers and a .392 (20-of-51) shooting performance from the field. Gensler led the way on the other end of the floor as well, scoring 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting, while Ja'Cor Nelson added 11 points and a game-high eight assists.
 
"Give Campbell credit, they did a great job," said Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich. "I don't know if it was an offensive funk for us as much as I thought Campbell was very good defensively."
 
With just 126 combined points, it was the second-lowest scoring game of the Big South schedule to date and saw the Fighting Camels hold their seventh opponent in the last nine games under 70 points. Confronted by Campbell's Big South-leading three-point defense, the Lancers attempted just 18 three-pointers, their lowest total of the season, and finished under 60 points for only the third time since the start of December.
 
Longwood guard Shabooty Phillips was the lone Lancer to find consistent success from beyond the arc, hitting 3-of-4 treys with two of those coming in the final nine minutes. His 13 points led the team, while fellow point guard Juan Munoz joined him in double figures with 11 points.
 
"We were 2-for-10 from three in the first half, but I thought only one or two of those were tough shots," Aldrich said. "DeShaun [Wade] has one rim out, Juan has one miss, Jaylon [Wilson] misses one. Those are good shooters. I believe in them, and I don't change my view in the way we play. The analytics say that's a great shot – it's a wide open three, and you've got your best shooters shooting them. You have to live with that. That's a play that frankly I want, so I was pleased with that."
 
Longwood entered the game holding opponents to 70.6 points per game, third lowest in the Big South behind only Campbell's 65.8 and league-leading Radford's 63.6. The Lancers managed to keep Campbell locked up for the majority of the game but were undone by a 15-5 run at the start of the second half that pushed Campbell's lead to multiple possessions for the remainder of the game.
 
That game-changing run saw Campbell get four consecutive three-pointers from four different players, punctuated by back-to-back treys from Austin McCullough and Jesus Carralero. That trey was one of two for McCullough, while Carralero's was only his sixth of the season.
 
"In the second half, they got hot, particularly from the three," Aldrich said. "The truth is where they created separation was their two big guys making threes. You have to pick your poison, and we were going to go help and leave him open. That's the shot we wanted them to take; unfortunately, they shot 7-for-10 in the second half."
 
Along with Gensler's 15 points, Nelson and Henderson added 11 and McCullough added 10. The win improved the Fighting Camels to 5-3 on their home floor and gave them their fourth straight win in the series.
 
Longwood will have little time to dwell on the loss with an upcoming matchup against UNC Asheville lined up for this Monday in Willett Hall. That will be the Lancers' third game in a five-day span as well as a rematch of a barn burner Longwood won 67-62 in last year's lone game against the Bulldogs.
 
"It's crazy to be playing three games in five days and not be in a tournament, but we'll get right at it tonight," Aldrich said. "We'll watch film of this game, and then we'll start to prepare for Asheville. We have to continue to get better at what we do, and I thought we did today. It wasn't the result we wanted, but we have to be more consistent. I thought we had a longer stretch today where we did that, especially on the defensive end."
 
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