The Opening Tip
• Longwood opens Big South play at home for a second straight season as they welcome Radford to Willett Hall for back-to-back contests on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• The two-day doubleheader is the first of Longwood's 10 two-game Big South series. The unorthodox double-round-robin conference schedule will pit the Lancers against every Big South team with games being played against each opponent on consecutive days at the same venues.
• The December 15 tipoff marks the earliest start to Big South play since the Lancers played High Point on December 1 in the 2015-16 season.
• Four players are averaging double digit points for a Lancer squad that has the second-ranked offense in the Big South.
Kyla McMakin (15.8),
Akila Smith (14.5),
Tra'Dayja Smith (13.3) and
Anne-Hamilton LeRoy (12.3) all are in the top 12 in the Big South in scoring.
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Akila Smith not only ranks seventh in the conference in scoring, but she also leads the Big South in rebounding at 11.5 boards per game and is one of three-players averaging a double-double.
Last Time Out
• Towson and Longwood brought their track shoes on Saturday afternoon, as the two teams went back and forth in a high-scoring and fast-paced thriller. Eleven players scored in double figures between the two teams, but Kionna Jeter and Shavonne Smith combined for 55 points as Towson took down Longwood 108-89.
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Akila Smith and
Adriana Shipp set career-highs in points—Smith totaled 19 points, along with nine rebounds, four blocks, and three steals, and the redshirt-freshman Shipp added 17 points and four rebounds in her fourth career game for the Lancers.
• the Lancer starting five all totaled double-digit points.
Kyla McMakin added 17 points with nine rebounds, and
Tra'Dayja Smith added 17 points and five assists while
Anne-Hamilton LeRoy tallied 12 points. Freshman
Brooke Anya made her collegiate debut, notching two points, five rebounds, a block and a steal.
By the Numbers
• The Lancers have posted the second-best offense in the Big South behind four players averaging in double digits in the scoring column.
Kyla McMakin leads the team and is third in the Big South with 15.8 points per game, while
Akila Smith (14.5),
Tra'Dayja Smith (13.3) and
Anne-Hamilton LeRoy (12.3) all rank in the top 12.
• Longwood's defense has forced 82 turnovers, good for second in the Big South, while swiping 39 steals. Their season high came against ETSU, when Longwood forced 32 turnovers, the most in a single game in the team's three seasons under head coach
Rebecca Tillett. Four players have posted multi-steal games.
Tra'Dayja Smith leads the way with 12 steals.
Akila Smith has added nine,
Kyla McMakin has eight and
Anne-Hamilton LeRoy has five.
• That defensive pressure has helped key the offense, as Longwood has scored 64 points off turnovers for an average of 16.0 points per game, good for 23.3 percent of the team's total points.
• In addition to defensive pressure, a focused effort on tracking down offensive rebounds has helped Longwood offset a cold start from the floor. Longwood has racked up 67 second-chance points across four games while snaring 65 offensive boards, good for second in the Big South.
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Akila Smith has led the charge by posting a team-best 20 offensive rebounds, good for second in the Big South.
Mallory Odell has added 10 offensive boards, and the team has had seven players grab at least three offensive rebounds.
• One season after earning 10 weekly honors in the Big South, the Lancers snagged the first Big South Player of the Week in 2020-21 on November 30.
Akila Smith earned the nod after posting a pair of double-doubles to open the season with a 17-point, 10-rebound performance at Duke followed by a 14-point, 13-rebound effort against ETSU.
• Coming into the '20-21 season, the Lancers returned 77.6 percent of their scoring.
Kyla McMakin led the charge by leading Longwood and the Big South in scoring at 18.8 points per game, while
Anne-Hamilton LeRoy added 11.1 points per game. McMakin leads the Lancers with 15.8 points per game, while LeRoy is third with 12.3 points per game.
Akila Smith slots in between the two with 14.5 points per game, nearly nine points more than her sophomore season.
• McMakin began her sophomore season by picking up where she left off her freshman campaign: getting buckets. The 5-11 guard poured in 24 points at Duke to become only the sixth non-conference player to score at least 20 points in a non-conference game in Cameron Indoor Stadium since the 2017-18 season. She paced the Big South in scoring as a freshman, averaging 18.8 points per game on her way to Big South Freshman of the Year honors along with a selection to the Big South First Team.
Series History
• The upcoming series with Radford will mark the fifth and sixth meetings between the Lancers and the Highlanders under coach Tillett.
• Radford, who finished 2019-20 second in the Big South, won both games a season ago, including a tight 62-61 battle in Willett Hall.
• Reigning Big South Freshman of the Year
Kyla McMakin lit up the scoreboard in her first two career meetings with Radford, dropping 29 and 32 points respectively.
#GoWood
