Game 2: Longwood (0-1, 0-0 Big South) at George Mason (0-1, 0-0 A-10)
Date & Time	Friday, Nov. 11 | 7 p.m.
Location	Fairfax, Va. (EagleBank Arena)
Game Notes	Longwood | George Mason | Big South
Statistics	Longwood | George Mason | Big South
Live Stats	Live Stats
Video/TV	ESPN+
Radio	WVHL 92.9 Kickin' Country FM
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodMBB

The Opening Tip
•    Longwood returns 11 players from last season's roster. Nearly 75 percent of the team's scoring and minutes return.
•    Longwood was picked as the preseason favorite in the Big South, the league announced in October. The Lancers garnered 16 of a possible 20 first place votes.
•    Isaiah Wilkins and DeShaun Wade were selected to the Big South Preseason All-Conference Teams. Wilkins earned a spot on the first team, and Wade garnered a second team spot.
•    Longwood is coming off of a trip to the NCAA Tournament, its first at the Division I level. The Lancers won the Big South regular season and tournament title to claim their March Madness bid.
•    The Lancers set a variety of program records at the Division I level in 2021-22: winning 26 games, going 16-1 at home and winning 11 straight.

Last Time Out
•    Longwood battled No. 20 Alabama on the road in Tuscaloosa to open the season, but the Crimson Tide used a second-half surge to down the Lancers 75-54.
•    The Lancer defense held Alabama to 39.1 percent (27-69) from the floor and a paltry 10.7 percent (3-28) from three, but Alabama grabbed 22 offensive rebounds to offset the poor shooting effort.
•    Longwood was led by 12 points from Michael Christmas. Christmas made his Lancer debut and hit the first shot of the game for Longwood.
•    Alabama extended the lead to double figures in the first half, but an 8-0 spurt pulled Longwood back within eight, and they trailed 34-26 at the half.
•    After halftime, Alabama again used its size to generate offense and stifle the Longwood defense to pull away as the Lancers ran out of steam.

By The Numbers
•    Longwood opened the season at 20th ranked Alabama, the first time the Lancers have taken on a top-20 foe to open the season under head coach Griff Aldrich.
•    The Lancers were picked to repeat as the Big South Champions in the preseason poll, with the Lancers garnering 16 of 20 first place votes. It marked the highest spot in the preseason poll in team history.
•    Longwood had a pair of preseason all-conference selections heading into the 2022-23 season. It was the first time the team has had two players selected for preseason all-conference honors since joining the Big South in 2012.
•    Isaiah Wilkins, Longwood's top returning scorer at 12.7 points per game last year, was selected to the All-Big South Preseason First Team. DeShaun Wade was named to the All-Big South Preseason Second Team.
•    Thanks to the team's Big South Championship and subsequent trip to the NCAA Tournament, the Lancers have now made a trip to the national tournament in all three NCAA divisions. The first came in the 1979-80 season with a team that went to the NCAA Division III Final Four. It was the tem's first trip at the Division I level.
•    In 2021-22, Longwood had the most wins among all men's basketball teams in the Commonwealth (26). The men's and women's teams combined for 47 wins, which also ranked first in the Commonwealth.
•    The Lancers led the Big South in scoring offense (75.8 points per game) and ranked third in scoring defense (65.7 points allowed per game) in 2021-22.

Quotables
"I told the guys afterwards, I thought a lot of our errors were not necessarily physical but mental. I didn't think we were urgent enough to execute, particularly on the defensive end. When you don't do that, when you play a top 20 team, they are going to punish you. And they did. We've got to be more crisp and more urgent to execute on the defensive end. We need to learn from this. We'll watch the film and evaluate what we can do better and then talk to the guys. Then we'll have to turn the page pretty quickly to go play a tough George Mason team up in Fairfax."
—Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich after the season opener at #20 Alabama

Series History
•    This is the fourth meeting between the two teams all time. The first meeting came in 2015, with the most recent meeting in 2019.
•    The first meeting between the two sides saw Shaquille Johnson post a 23-point, 11-rebound double-double for the Lancers.
•    DeShaun Wade had 13 points to lead Longwood in the last meeting between the two teams in 2019.

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