The Opening Tip:
•  Longwood prepares to play the Duquesne Dukes on Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. in Willett Hall as the second game in the teams two game homestand.
•  The difficult non-conference schedule continues for Longwood with an Atlantic 10 match up, being the first time the two teams have met in history.
•  The Dukes struggled in the 2020-21 season only going 4-7 in conference play, 5-11 overall, but prior to this past spring, the Dukes have an average of 19 wins per season over the last 12 years.
•  Longwood finished a program-best third in the Big South behind 12 conference wins, also a program record since joining the league.
•  Following this game, the Lancers hit the road for almost a month playing six more of its non-conference match ups.
•  McMakin,
Akila Smith, and
Tra'Dayja Smith are all averaging double digits after the first two games of the season.
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By the Numbers:
• Longwood returns a wealth of experience, with eight players returning from last season's third-place team that put together one of the top season's in the programs Division I history.
• Of those eight players, the team sees 92 percent of its scoring and 89 percent of its minutes return, including its top five scorers and all five starters.
• That core group led the Big South in scoring in conference games, averaging 71.8 points per game in 18 conference contests..
•
Akila Smith and
Kyla McMakin were both selected to the All-Big South Preseason First Team, the first time Longwood has had two players selected to the conference preseason first team.
• Smith was also named to the Her Hoop Stats Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award Preseason Watch List after a season that saw her set the program career, single season and single game block records.
• Guard
Kyla McMakin, a two-time All-Big South First Team selection over her first two seasons at Longwood, became the fastest player to tally 1,000 points in program history. She surpassed the mark in the team's 83-69 win over UNC Asheville in her 54th career game for Longwood. In the process, McMakin became the 23rd player to reach the milestone.
• McMakin also became the first Lancer to lead the Big South in scoring in back-to-back seasons. She averaged 18.8 points per game as a freshman and 17.9 per game as a sophomore, both the top mark in the conference.
• Point guard
Tra'Dayja Smith led the Big South in assists per game for a second straight season, posting an average of 5.4 helpers per contest while directing traffic for the top scoring unit in the Big South for a second straight season.
•             In her two seasons as a Lancer, Smith has two of the top 10 single-season assist totals. Her 188 assists set the single-season record in 2019-20, and she followed it up with 135 over 25 games in 2020-21.
Quotables:
"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. 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."Â
-Fourth-year head coach
Rebecca TillettÂ
"I think our defense definitely could have been better. We just have to study film, and can't make the same mistakes we made this week, next week."
-Grad Student Point GuardÂ
Tra'Dayja Smith
Series History:
• Longwood and Duquesne are meeting for the first time in team history.
• The Lancers finished third in the Big South last season, while the Dukes had a conference record of 4-7, and came in ninth overall.
• The Dukes are ranked in the 9th slot in the A10 preseason poll.
•  From 2009-2018 the Dukes made 10 straight postseason appearances, including one trip to the NCAA Tournament, and nine to the WNIT.
#HorsePower
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