FARMVILLE, Va. – Taylor Brown's 19 points and a fourth-quarter defensive stand pushed American past Longwood 62-58 Saturday afternoon in the Lancers' final home game of the calendar year.
 
Brown, a 6-1 senior forward, hit 7-of-12 shots from the field and two three-pointers as the Eagles (7-3) won for the fifth time in their past six games. As the Patriot League's No. 3 scoring and No. 4 defensive team, American did just enough to outlast Longwood's top-tier Big South offense and finished with four double-digit scorers.

"If teams shoot 47 percent on you it's tough, and if you get out rebounded by 15, these are all the things we talked about and have been trying to fix," said head coach Rebecca Tillett. "We put up a good fight all the way down the stretch, to be within a basket and potentially tie it at the end, but overall a really good effort against a great American team."
 
Along with Brown's 19 points – which matched a season high for the second-year starter – Patriot League Preseason All-Conference pick Jade Edwards neared a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds, guard Maddie Doring added 11 points, and guard Riley DeRubbo contributed 10 points in 27 minutes off the bench.
 
That all-around effort was enough for American to overcome a scrappy Longwood (3-8) team that rallied from a double-digit deficit in the third quarter to pull the game to within one possession in the final four minutes. The Lancers created two opportunities to tie the score in the closing minutes of the game, but freshman Kennedy Calhoun and redshirt sophomore Adriana Shipp's back-to-back three-point attempts rimmed out to preserve American's 58-55 lead.
 
Brown and Edwards put the game away in the final minute, with Brown scoring on a putback layup with 26 seconds to play and Edwards connecting on two free throws with nine seconds left after Longwood was forced to foul. Those late points put to rest a comeback bid that saw the Lancers pull off a 14-2 run in the third quarter that turned American's 11-point lead into a one-point deficit, as Akila Smith's layup gave Longwood its first lead of the second half with 1:57 to play.  
 
However, American countered with eight unanswered points leading into the early minutes of the fourth quarter and leaned on that cushion to lock up the win despite a buzzer-beating three-pointer from freshman Briana Johns to end the game.
 
Longwood got a career-high 13 points from Calhoun, who has started every game of her freshman season and improved her scoring average to 6.2 points per game with the performance. She earned those 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting and also amassed five steals, three of which came after halftime and two of which came in the fourth quarter after Longwood cut the deficit to four points.

"We have a lot of women that are fighting to compete with teams, and it's definitely a new, and good, challenge for us to have with all the depth," said Tillett. "I thought Kennedy's performance today was really special. She gave us a chance with her defense. There have been multiple game this year where she has just taken opponents best players out of the game. That's something us coaches have enjoyed watching grow, and I think that will serve us well in conference play."
 
Calhoun's freshman classmate Johns also set a career high with 11 points, doing so with three three-pointers in her first career start.

"We start 0-0 in conference play, and conference is what matters. Non-conference obviously has its level of importance, and you want to learn and grow, and build confidence," said Tillett. "Our hope is that we take this difficult non-conference schedule and the lessons that we learned, and apply right away when we enter the conference."
 
The loss concludes the non-conference portion of the Lancers' schedule and sends them into their longest break of the season, which will allow them 11 days between games for the winter holiday. Their next matchup will be the Big South opener against league newcomer North Carolina A&T on Wednesday, Dec. 29, in Greensboro, N.C.
 
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