Longwood University Athletics

Game 7: Longwood (1-5, 0-2 Big South) vs. The Citadel (5-0)
Date & Time	Saturday, Dec. 19 (12:30 p.m.)
Location	Farmville, Va. (Willett Hall)
Game Notes	Longwood (PDF) | The Citadel (PDF) | Big South
Statistics	Longwood (HTML) | The Citadel (HTML) | Big South (HTML)
Live Stats	Longwood Live Stats
Radio	WVHL 92.9 FM Kickin' Country
Video/TV	ESPN+
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodMBB

The Opening Tip
•    After opening Big South play this past Monday and Tuesday against Radford, Longwood will play the first of its final two non-conference games this Saturday against The Citadel in Willett Hall. 
•    Saturday's matchup will mark the third straight season Longwood and The Citadel have played.
•    Longwood has relied heavily on a number of freshmen and first-year players this season following the injuries to veteran guards Heru Bligen and DeShaun Wade. 
•    The Lancers have started two freshmen — Jesper Granlund and Justin Hill — in every game this season, while the team has squeezed more than 45 percent of its total minutes from freshmen.
•    The Lancers are 19-12 at home in Willett Hall in three seasons under head coach Griff Aldrich. Longwood's last home bout was a 77-60 win over North Carolina A&T on Dec. 8.

Last Time Out
•    Behind 14 points from freshman Fah'Mir Ali and a defensive stronghold in the final 90 seconds, Radford clawed back from a double-digit deficit to overcome Longwood 62-53 in game two of the Big South series Tuesday at the Dedmon Center.
•    Squaring off against a Longwood lineup laden with youth in the absence of injured veteran guards Heru Bligen, Jermaine Drewey and DeShaun Wade, Radford erased a 10-point halftime deficit and ended the game with an 8-0 run and a perfect 8-of-8 stretch at the free throw line.
•    That comeback negated a dominant first half in which Longwood built a 30-20 halftime lead. However, Radford turned the tables with a 27-12 second-half run that gave them the lead for good with 6:39 to play.
•    Longwood got half its scoring from freshmen, with Justin Hill leading the way with 14 points.

By The Numbers
•    Longwood men's basketball earned its highest-ever team grade point average this past fall with a 3.24. That surpassed last spring's 3.20 team GPA and the previous fall's 3.13, giving the program three consecutive semesters above a 3.0. 
•    Four Lancers made the Dean's List this semester: Jesper Granlund, Bennett Mohn, Cameron O'Conner and Zac Watson. Graduate student Juan Munoz also earned a 3.9 GPA in his Master's of Business Administration program.
•    Longwood has held each of its past four opponents under 70 points. The Lancers currently rank third in the Big South with an opponent scoring average of 68.5 after finishing third in that category in 2019-20 with a clip of 68.6.
•    The Lancer defense also ranks third in the conference in opponent three-point field goal percentage (.309) and opponent turnovers per game (14.2).
•    Longwood has gotten more than 45 percent of its minutes from freshmen this year. True freshmen Jesper Granlund and Justin Hill have started every game, while redshirt freshmen Nate Lliteras and Bennett Mohn are both averaging more than 10 minutes per game.
•    The reigning Big South Freshman of the Week, Hill ranks eighth among all NCAA freshmen with 4.8 assists per game. He is also the Big South's No. 2 freshman scorer at 11.8 points per game and ranks ninth overall with 32.3 minutes per game.
•    Zac Watson, a transfer from UC Riverside in his first year at Longwood, has been the Lancers' first player off the bench in five of six games this season. He is averaging 20.4 minutes per game.
•    Juan Munoz is currently tied with former teammate JaShaun Smith for the program's career Division I three-point percentage record with a career .384 (106-of-276) clip from long range.
•    Munoz has hit a three-pointer in 24 consecutive games dating back to the 2019-20 season. 
•    Fifty of Longwood's 75 assists have led to three-pointers this season. Justin Hill has dished a team-high 18 of those three-point assists, while Juan Munoz has racked up 13.

Quotable
"We have to come out and compete every single night to be the best team we want to be. Considering the roster we're working with right now, there's no excuse for that. Everybody should be out fighting as hard as they possibly can."
— Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich after Tuesday's loss at Radford

Series History
•    Longwood and The Citadel meet for a third consecutive year Saturday in Willett Hall. 
•    The series began just three seasons ago and coincides with Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich's hiring before the 2018-19 season.
•    The teams have split the first two matchups in a pair of high-scoring affairs in which the winner has topped 100 points both times. Longwood took the first meeting 110-94 on Dec. 29, 2018, and The Citadel countered with a 102-99 win the following season on Dec.. 19, 2019.
•    Prior to taking over at The Citadel, head coach Duggar Baucom faced Longwood seven times as head coach of VMI.

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