Longwood University Athletics

Game 8: Longwood (1-6, 0-2 Big South) at Virginia Tech (6-1, 1-0 ACC)
Date & Time	Monday, Dec. 21 (8 p.m.)
Location	Blacksburg, Va. (Cassell Coliseum)
Game Notes	Longwood (PDF) | Virginia Tech | Big South
Statistics	Longwood (HTML) | Virginia Tech (HTML) | Big South (HTML)
Live Stats	Virginia Tech Live Stats
Radio	WVHL 92.9 FM Kickin' Country
Video/TV	ACC Network
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodMBB

The Opening Tip
•    Longwood plays its final non-conference game of the regular season this Monday at Virginia Tech. The game will be Longwood's second against an ACC opponent this season and the team's second time appearing on ACC Network.
•    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. Freshmen Jesper Granlund and Justin Hill have started every game, while 44 percent of Longwood's total minutes have come from its freshman class.
•    The Lancers have been within one possession in the final minute in each of their past four losses. 
•    Longwood athletics director Michelle Meadows is a Virginia Tech alum, a member of the Hokie Athletics Hall of Fame, and has her jersey number retired as a member of the Hokie softball program.

Last Time Out
•    Fletcher Abee hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 52 seconds remaining, and The Citadel followed with two defensive stops to pull out a 91-89 victory over Longwood Saturday afternoon in Willett Hall.
 •    In a matchup that was back-and-forth throughout, the lead changed times nine times in the final 5:31. 
•    DeShaun Wade scored six straight points to give the Lancers an 89-86 advantage at the 1:42 mark, but Abee put The Citadel ahead for good with his game-winning three-pointer.
•    Longwood sophomore Leslie Nkereuwem and freshman Justin Hill both hit career scoring highs, with Nkereuwem netting 20 on 9-of-11 field goals, and Hill finished with 18 on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor and 8-of-10 from the free throw line.
•    Hayden Brown had 26 points and 10 rebounds for The Citadel, while Abee finished with 16 and Kaiden Rice with 19.

By The Numbers
•    Longwood has gotten 44 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 among the NCAA's top 10 freshmen with 4.4 assists per game. He is also the Big South's 
No. 2 freshman scorer at 12.7 points per game and ranks 10th overall with 32.1 minutes per game.
•    After missing the first six games of the season with an injury, junior guard DeShaun Wade made his 2020-21 debut Saturday against The Citadel. Wade played in all 32 games last season and started 21 of the final 23.
•    Entering the season, 10 of Longwood's 17 players had never suited up in a Lancer uniform. Only two of those — redshirt junior Juan Munoz and redshirt sophomore Abraham Deng — had been in the Longwood program multiple seasons. 
•    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. 
•    Longwood has held four of its past five opponents under 70 points.
•    Juan Munoz is a career .385 shooter from three-point range, a clip that would break the program's Division I career three-point percentage record held by his former Longwood and AAU teammate JaShaun Smith (.384).
•    Munoz has hit a three-pointer in 25 consecutive games dating back to the 2019-20 season. 
•    Through the first seven games, four different Lancers have led the team in scoring, while five had led the team in rebounding. 

Quotable
"This team's going to be a good team, but we have to learn the lesson. And the lesson will continue to be taught to us until we sit down and embrace it."
 — Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich after Tuesday's loss at Radford

Series History
•    Longwood and Virginia Tech meet for the fourth time in series history Monday in Blacksburg, Va. The matchup will be the first between the two Commonwealth schools since the 2010-11 season.
•    The Hokies lead the series 3-0, with all three of those meetings taking place on the Hokies' home court in Cassell Coliseum.
•    The matchup will be Longwood's second against an ACC opponent this season following this year's season opener at Wake Forest. 
•    Virginia Tech guard Justyn Mutts is the lone player on the Hokie roster to have faced Longwood before, having done so as a freshman at High Point in 2017-18. Mutts faced the Lancers in three games that season.

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