FARMVILLE, Va. – Gigi Gonzalez and Anastasia Warren combined for 49 points to power Stony Brook past Longwood 82-63 on Friday afternoon in Willett Hall.
The duo helped the Seawolves (2-0) spoil Longwood's home opener by combining for more than half of their team's points. Warren collected 29 points, while Gonzalez tallied a career high with 20 for the reigning America East Conference champions. Earlette Scott also hit double digits in the scoring column, finishing with 10 points.
On the defensive end of the court, the Seawolves flexed their muscle. The top defensive team in the America East last season, Stony Brook was able to limit a high-powered Longwood (0-2) offense to 34 percent shooting from the floor.
"Huge credit to Stony Brook. They earned their way to that NCAA tournament last year and they've done the things we're trying to do here, so they definitely came in read on the road on the jump," said fourth-year head coach
Rebecca Tillett. "I think it took us a while to get going, then we started to get going but defensively we gave up too many layups, easy shots, open threes, and that's what we need to fix the most."
Akila Smith, a preseason all-conference selection in the Big South, led the charge on offense with 18 points for the Lancers and was one of three players who scored double digits.
Tra'Dayja Smith earned her second double-double as a Lancer with 10 points and 11 assists.
Adriana Shipp came off the bench with a hot hand hitting three back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers late in the second quarter. Shipp scored 12 points, going 4-6 from 3-point range.
"For Tra'dayja to come out and create, I think she is most responsible for our response in the third quarter, just scoring the ball better," said Tillett. "That was mostly because of what she was doing to create for other people,"
It was a battle back and forth until the final quarter of the game. The two teams traded leads early before Gonzalez helped power her team to a 10 point lead in the second quarter. Gonzalez scored 14 of her 20 points in the first half. Shipp sparked the Lancers with three straight three's to help close the gap to seven at halftime.
"Adriana came in and hit big shots, came in and got rebounds, got stops, and I thought that was good," said
Tra'Dayja Smith.
After halftime, the Lancers made a run to close the gap to two points. It was back-to-back threes off the hand of freshman Kennedy Calhoun that trimmed the lead to 47-45. Warren had the answer for Stony Brook, scoring nine of the team's final 11 to push the lead back to seven to end the quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Warren took over on offense. Every time the Lancers scored, she had the answer, scoring 11 points in the final 10 minutes. The Seawolves' defense also held the lancers scoreless over a three minute stretch that allowed them to take a 12 point lead with 2:24 left in the game. From that point on the Seawolves were able to hit free throws and manage the clock to close it out.
"I think our defense definitely could have been better," said Smith. "We just have to study film, and can't make the same mistakes we made this week, next week."
Longwood wraps up a two game homestand on Wednesday, Nov. 17 when they welcome Duquesne to Willett Hall. Tip-off is set for 11 a.m. and the game will be aired on ESPN+.
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