The Opening Tip
•   In the midst of a 10-game surge in which they are 7-3 and one of the hottest teams in the Big South, Longwood plays its final game of the 2019-20 regular season Thursday at Presbyterian.
•   Since Jan. 25, only first-place Radford (9-1) has a better record than Longwood (7-3).
•   A win against Presbyterian would guarantee Longwood its first .500 finish in Big South play and a league finish no lower than sixth place, which would be a program record since joining the conference in 2012-13.Â
•   Longwood enters Thursday's game on a three-game win streak, which ties the program record for consecutive wins during the Big South regular season. The 2015-16 Lancers also won three in a row to open their league slate.
•   Longwood is 3-1 in its past four road games and 4-4 in Big South road games this season.
•   Since they last faced Presbyterian on Jan. 16, the Lancers are 7-5.
Last Time Out
•   Extending its win streak to three straight, Longwood rode a career-high 19 points from
DeShaun Wade and an end-of-game takeover by his backcourt mate
Juan Munoz to a 57-54 gut-check win over High Point.
•   Those two spearheaded a game-changing performance from Longwood's bench, combining for 32 of 39 bench points to send the Lancers to their fifth straight win over the Panthers and second-year head coach
Griff Aldrich's fourth straight over High Point head coach Tubby Smith.
•   High Point overcame a seven-point deficit to tie the game with 2:03 to play, but Munoz stole the spotlight in the final minute and scored Longwood's final six points to secure the win. His three-point play with 37 seconds left put the Lancers ahead for good, and he hit 4-of-5 free throws down the stretch to lock it up.
•  Â
Shabooty Phillips dished six assists in his team-high 32 minutes of court time.
By The Numbers
•   With seven wins in 10 games, the Lancers are in the midst of the program's winningest 10-game stretch of the Division I era. Longwood has gone 7-3 four other times since making the jump to the D-I level (2005-06, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2018-19), but this year's team is the first to do it exclusively against D-I opponents.Â
•   Longwood is currently tied for fifth place in the Big South standings, which marks the program's highest conference foothold in February since joining the conference in 2012-13. Longwood has already set a program record for Big South wins and is guaranteed the program's Big South winning percentage record as well.
•   Longwood has held three of its past five opponents under 60 points, all wins. The Lancers are surrendering just 61.8 points per game during that five-game span while holding those five foes to .400 (108-of-270) shooting from the field and .347 (35-of-101) from three-point range.Â
•   The Lancers have committed just 10.0 turnovers per game in their past five outings, compared to 14.2 per game in their first 12 Big South games.Â
•   Point guards
Juan Munoz and
Shabooty Phillips boast a combined 1.28 assist-to-turnover ratio on the season and have assisted on 51.8 percent of Longwood's made field goals. Of their 177 combined assists, 115 have led to three-pointers.Â
•   Munoz (91 assists) and Phillips (86) are the first two Longwood players to both surpass 80 assists in the same season since Shaquille Johnson (94), Leron Fisher (85) and Quincy Taylor (83) did so for the 2014-15 Longwood team that reached the semifinals of the 2015 Big South Championship.
•   Longwood's bench averages 28.3 points per game and has chipped in at least 20 points in 25 of 30 games this season, including four outbursts of at least 40 points. The bench scored 39 in Saturday's 57-54 win over High Point.
Quotable
"He'll be a loved Lancer for years to come, but I also think he's starting to shape the identity of this program. He's a guy who comes out, plays hard, gives what he has to the team whether his shot's going in or not."
— Longwood head coach on senior point guard
Shabooty Phillips
Series History
•   Longwood and Presbyterian meet for the second time this season and 14th time in series history Thursday in Clinton, S.C. The Blue Hose own a 10-3 advantage in the all-time series, which dates back to Jan. 26, 2013.
•   Presbyterian took the first meeting this season 74-67 in Willett Hall on Jan. 16 behind a 16-point, eight-rebound effort from Cory Hightower.Â
•   The Blue Hose have won five straight over Longwood, which is the longest win streak by either team in a series that began in 2013.Â
•   Every game in the series has been since Longwood joined the Big South in 2012-13.
•   Longwood is 1-5 when facing Presbyterian in Clinton, S.C. The lone Lancer win on Presbyterian's home floor was a 71-67 triumph on Jan. 31, 2015.
#GoWood
