FARMVILLE, Va. – Defense keyed the Longwood women's basketball team on Tuesday night against Radford, leading the Lancers to a two-game sweep of the Highlanders. Longwood formed a wall around the paint and limited Radford to 30 percent shooting from the floor as the Lancers won 84-55.
 
One night flustering Radford with a press that held the Highlanders to 41 percent shooting from the floor, the Lancer defense stepped up its game even more. Longwood (2-4, 2-0 Big South) was impregnable in the half-court and held its in-state foe to 13 made shots total over the final three quarters of action. The win gave Longwood its first season sweep of Radford in team history.
 
Akila Smith anchored the back line to the tune of six blocks, two shy of her career high, and Longwood forced 16 turnovers while snatching nine steals.
 
"We have talked a lot about how we want to improve our defense, and I think our women are figuring that out," said third-year head coach Rebecca Tillett. "It is so much fun to watch. You can hear us talking about how many stops we have, how many in a row, and they are so locked in. I am really, really excited about the progress on the defensive end."
 
The steals and defensive stops turned into points the other way, with Longwood scoring 20 points off turnovers while totaling a season-best 28 fast break points. Four players finished in double figures, and seven players scored while the team piled up 15 assists on 30 made shots.
 
One night after notching 19 points apiece in a 31-point win, Kyla McMakin and Adriana Shipp upped the ante as each scored 20 points. For McMakin, it marked her second 20-point outburst of the season, and she added four rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. Shipp has hit double digits in three straight, setting a new career-high in scoring each time, and she snared six rebounds with two assists, one steal and one block to boot. Tra'Dayja Smith added 10 points, three rebounds and four assists.
 
Even as McMakin and Shipp shouldered the load offensively, it was Smith who helped settle the team down early, scoring Longwood's first bucket two minutes into the first quarter. She tallied her fourth double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds
 
"From the team standpoint, you worry a little about how focused are we going to be, how tough are we going to be, and I think our women were actually a little bit nervous," Tillett said. "I think you saw that when the game started. And it was so great because, in typical Akila Smith fashion, we called a play for her because she has a calming presence on all of us, although she is disruptive to everyone else on defense. We called a play, she went in and got an easy bucket, and she settled us down right at the start. We talk about focus and attitude, how do we approach the game, and I think our women did well in both."
 
"That's how I've always been," Smith, a junior forward from Orlando, Florida, said. "My personality translates to the court. When Coach Tillett called that play for me, I knew it was what the team needed, so I executed and got it done. I knew it was something I could do for the team."
 
Once Smith settled Longwood down, the two teams traded small runs back and forth in the first quarter. After Radford cut the lead to 17-15 with less than two minutes to play, junior guard Milou Vennema stepped up and drilled back-to-back three's to push the lead to eight, and the defense took over from there in the second quarter. Vennema finished the game with nine points while tying a career mark with three three's.
 
During the second quarter, Longwood held Radford without a made shot for a total of 6:55 of the 10-minute period. Over the first three minutes of the frame, Longwood went on a 7-0 run that pushed the lead to double digits. In the final 3:55 of the first half, McMakin chipped in five points as the defense against suffocated Radford during an 8-1 run that stretched the lead to 48-32 at the break. McMakin finished the quarter with 10 of her 20 points, while Shipp added seven and Mallory Odell scored five.
 
In the second half, the defense stayed locked in and prevented Radford from sniffing a comeback with a third-quarter effort that only allowed the Highlanders to hit three shots and 10 total points. Meanwhile, the offense stayed in motion, and five players scored in the quarter. Longwood shot 50 percent from the floor on the way to scoring 23 points and building 26-point lead.
 
With the team's first Big South series in the books, the Lancers face one final non-conference test on Saturday against Howard.
 
"As we move to Howard, they are another really good team on our non-conference schedule," Tillett said. "We think they have a chance to prepare us specifically for one of our league opponents that likes to play high-pressure, so we are looking forward to that opportunity. We will have to be strategic the next couple of days with managing fatigue and have the focus to get better every day."
 
Tip-off is set for 4:30 p.m. in Willett Hall, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
 
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