Longwood University Athletics

Game 22: Longwood (11-10, 8-2 Big South) vs. Charleston Southern (2-17, 2-6 Big South)
Date & Time	Wednesday Feb. 2, 2022
Location	Farmville, Va. (Willett Hall)
Game Notes	Longwood | Charleston Southern | Big South
Statistics	Longwood | Charleston Southern | Big South
Live Stats	Lancer Live Stats
Video/TV	ESPN+
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodWBB

Opening Tip:

• Longwood improved their record with a win over Radford on Saturday making it now four-straight wins. It also improved the overall record to 11-10, the second straight season the Lancers are above .500 after 20 games.
• The past four wins were also all double-digit wins for the Lancers over Big South opponents, with three of the four games having four Lancers scoring in double-digits.
• Kyla McMakin has put up double-digits in 10 straight games with five of those games being 20 plus.
• Adriana Shipp has also shined through most recent conference games. Shipp has grabbed double-digits in three of the last five outings for Longwood, while also getting a new career high of four steals in the game against Radford.
• Akila Smith added two more blocks last Saturday, putting her at 62 on the year - almost 40 more than the second ranked shot blocker in the Big South (3rd nationally).

Series History:

• In the most recent meeting between the Buccaneers and the Lancers, Longwood struck another milestone for its program. The 25 point victory marked the 10th win of the 2020-2021 season - the most wins in program history for Longwood.
• Lancer's won back-to-back games over the Buc's and advanced the team's record under Tillett to 4-2 in the span of 48 hours.

By the Numbers:

• Kyla McMakin earned her second Big South Player of the Week award this past week after averaging 27.0 ppg, and grabbing two season-best's against Winthrop (27) and Gardner-Webb (33). McMakin also strung four consecutive games with 20 plus points, matching the Longwood Division I record in doing so.
• Akila Smith has been one of the top shot blockers in the country throughout this season. She ranks first in the Big South with 62, and is ranked third on the national leaderboard.  
• Tra'Dayja Smith is the leading passer in the Big South for the second year in a row, with 111 assists on the year.
• Kyla McMakin and Akila Smith are ranked amongst the top scorers in the Big South. McMakin has strung together eight straight games in double-digit scoring with Smith grabbing 10 plus in the previous three games. This is the second straight season the duo remains in the top five. 
• Kennedy Calhoun has been a menace to opposing guards defensively, and has made a stance for herself going into conference play. Calhoun earned her first ever Freshman of the Week honor after stringing together two more games in double-digit scoring and collecting eight assists last week. She now has 58 steals (2.76 spg) and ranks first again in the Big South, and 10th nationally in steals - as a freshman point guard.
• Akila Smith wrote her name in the Longwood record books again with her second career triple double, the third in team history, with a 20-point, 11-rebound, 10-block effort at Sam Houston on Nov. 30.

Quoteables:
 
"We've been able to really turn on the pressure on our defense, and having that high pressure system on opposing offensive teams that can't get into any sort of rhythm. Our mentality is everybody's guarding the ball, and we help each other out in doing that. Our mentality is, don't let the person in front of you score, and if they are going to score, it's going to be a hard shot, it's going to be a contested shot. We have taken that message and really messed teams up with it." –Freshman Guard, Kennedy Calhoun

"Our defense keeps improving, which is critical to us. Our offense, we continue to get consistent contributions from more different women. We just really want to be hard to guard. When you have more people in double-figures, teams have to respect every women on the floor. We know we have multiple people capable of doing that, and we've made it focus since the beginning of the year. So it's really great that now we're seeing more consistency with that. Plus, it takes pressure off our leading scorers as well, so they can just do their thing." – Head Coach Rebecca Tillett