The Opening Tip
•   Longwood enters the 2020 Hercules Tires Big South Championship on the heels of a record-breaking regular season in which they set program standards for highest Big South finish (No. 4), most Big South wins (9) and highest Big South winning percentage (.500, 9-9).
•   The Lancers earned the Big South's No. 4 seed after finishing the conference schedule winners of eight of their past 11 games. That is the program's winningest 11-game stretch against NCAA Divisional peers since an 8-3 stretch in 2000-01.
•   Longwood has the Big South's longest active winning streak entering the postseason at four games. The past two of those wins have each come by three points.
•   Longwood is 4-1 in its past four road games and 5-4 in Big South road games this season. The Lancers have lost just once away from home since the start of February while winning four straight on the road in that span.
Last Time Out
•   Extending the winningest stretch of the program's Division I era, Longwood rode 16 points and several clutch three-pointers from senior
JaShaun Smith to overcome Presbyterian 58-55 and end the 2020 Big South regular season with eight wins in the past 11 games.
•   The win moved Longwood into sole possession of fourth place in the Big South standings and  secured the program's most Big South wins since joining the league in 2012-13.
•   Thursday's win over the Blue Hose saw Longwood once again come out on top in a gut-check battle that came down to the final possessions. Presbyterian battled back from an 11-point deficit to make it a one-possession game for almost the entire second half, but Smith delivered two three-pointers in the final five minutes that kept Longwood just outside of Presbyterian's reach.Â
•   Longwood forced stops on four of Presbyterian's final five possessions.
By The Numbers
•   The Lancers enter the Big South Championship tournament in the midst of the program's winningest stretch of the Division I era, having won eight of their past 11 games. The last time Longwood beat at least eight of 11 NCAA Divisional peers came in 2000-01 when the NCAA Division II Tournament-bound Lancers ended the year winners of 10 of their final 13 games, including an undefeated 3-0 run through the Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference Championship tournament.
•   Longwood head coach
Griff Aldrich is only the third coach in program history to win 30 games before the end of his second season. Dr. Ron Bash amassed a 47-11 record in the 1978-89 and 1979-80 seasons, and Cal Luther went a combined 30-18 in 1981-82 and 1982-83.Â
•   Over the past 11 games, Longwood has held opponents to just 64.3 points per game, compared to 73.7 per game in its first seven league games. Only Winthrop and UNC Asheville have scored at least 70 points in regulation against Longwood in that span.
•   Longwood has held three consecutive opponents under 60 points, all wins.Â
•   Senior point guard
Shabooty Phillips has finished with more assists than turnovers in eight consecutive games and boasts a 2.64 (37/14) assist-to-turnover ratio during that stretch.Â
•   Redshirt sophomore point guard
Juan Munoz has hit a three-pointer in 17 consecutive games and is shooting .412 (40-of-97) in that span.
•   Freshman forward
Leslie Nkereuwem leads Longwood with 21 dunks this season, which is three times more than the next closest Lancer.
•   Nkereuwem has been Longwood's first player off the bench a team-high 18 times.
•   Longwood has won back-to-back one-possession games and is 4-4 in games decided by three or fewer points this season.Â
Longwood in the Big South Men's Basketball Championship
•  Longwood is 5-7 all-time in the Big South Men's Basketball Championship, having played in the past seven after joining the conference in 2012-13.
•  Longwood's No. 4 seeding is the highest in program history, surpassing the previous high of a No. 8 seed in the 2015-16 tournament.
•  Longwood is 1-2 in the Big South quarterfinals, with the program's lone win in that round coming over No. 1 seed Charleston Southern in the 2015 tournament.Â
•  Longwood has faced the No. 5 seed just one time, which was against Winthrop in the semifinals of the 2015 tournament. The Eagles won that matchup 71-58 in Conway, S.C.
•  Longwood is 4-5 when playing on a neutral site during the Big South Championship and 1-2 as a visiting team.Â
•  Michael Kessens, then a freshman, holds Longwood's single-game scoring record in the tournament with his 36-point performance in a first-round win against VMI on March 7, 2013. Kessens also holds the single-game rebounding record with 16 in that same game.
Quotable
"As soon as I heard he got the job [at Longwood], I told my head coach at Trinity Valley I'm not looking at anymore schools. I want to go to Longwood, 100 percent."
— Senior
Shabooty Phillips on his decade-long relationship with head coach
Griff Aldrich & what brought him to Longwood
Series History
•   Longwood and Hampton meet for the third time this season and 10th time in series history Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Big South Championship.Â
•   Thursday's game marks the second straight year Longwood and Hampton meet in the Big South Championship tournament. The teams squared off in the first round of the 2019 Big South Championship, and No. 8 seed Hampton defeated No. 9 seed Longwood 77-71 on March 5 in Hampton, Va.
•   Including Thursday's game, Longwood and Hampton will have met six times in the two seasons since the Pirates joined the Big South in 2018-19. Hampton leads that segment of the series 4-1.Â
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