The Opening Tip
• Longwood is one win shy of 20 on the season, which would mark the first time in the program's Division I history the team has won 20 games in a season. The last time the team won 20 games was in the 2000-01 season.
• That 2000-01 team went 23-8 and was ranked as high as 21st in the DII national poll while in the CVAC.
• Longwood clinched at least a share of the North Division crown in the Big South with a win over High Point. The team's best finish in Big South play came back in 2019-20, with a fourth-place finish.
• Longwood's 11th conference win also sets a new high-water mark since joining the Big South, with the program's previous best set last season at 10.
• The Lancers are 14-1 in Willett Hall, surpassing the program's previous best for home wins in the Division I era set in 2008-09.
Last Time Out
• Longwood won a thriller over High Point, 70-66, in a game where neither team led by more than six points on Tuesday night.
• The win clinched at least a share of the North Division in the Big South for Longwood with four games to play.
•
Justin Hill,
Isaiah Wilkins and
Zac Watson keyed the win, with all three scoring in double figures.
• Hill led the Lancers with 15 points while Wilkins chipped in 12, including a critical basket from the baseline with less than three minutes to go. Watson added 10 points while keying a Longwood run to take the lead with five minutes to play.
• Zach Austin led High Point with 17 points, and John-Michael Wright added 16. Jaden House finished with 11.
• The Longwood defense buckled down and forced an errant shot on High Point's final possession to preserve the win.
By The Numbers
• Longwood's offense has been one of the top outfits in the Big South sharing the basketball all season. The Lancers are second in the league with 14.7 assists per game. Point guard
Justin Hill ranks third in the league in assists per game (4.1), and
Jordan Perkins is 11th (3.0)
• Longwood has totaled more assists than turnovers in 17 of 25 games this season. The team has had less than 10 turnovers in a game eight times.
• The team's 12.0 turnovers per game rank as the second-fewest in the Big South, and the team leads the Big South in turnover margin (+2.7).
• Longwood's bench is contributing 29.0 points per game, with 10.0 of those coming from
Leslie Nkereuwem. Nkereuwem is one of the top bench scorers in the Big South.
• The Lancers lead the Big South in scoring offense (76.9 points per game) and rank third in scoring defense (65.0 points allowed per game). Longwood leads the conference in scoring margin with an average of +11.9 points per game.
• Longwood has excelled on its home court under fourth-year head coach
Griff Aldrich, amassing a 40-17 record in Willett Hall during his tenure. That includes an 14-1 mark this season, an 8-5 record in 2020-21, an 8-6 record in 2019-20 and a 10-5 mark in 2018-19.
• Longwood has only given up 65 points or more 12 times this season. The Lancers have held seven teams to 55 points or fewer.
• The Lancers' +6.8 rebounding margin ranks 21st nationally, while their 12.7 offensive rebounds per game lead the league and are 26th in the nation.
• Longwood's defense is second in the Big South in steals per game (8.0) and has racked up 200 steals on the season.
• The Lancers are third in the Big South in three-point field goal percentage (.359, 201-560).
Quotables
"I told the guys I extremely proud of them. I didn't think it was our greatest effort. But, in the second half there was no doubt that there was purpose, that these guys wanted to win the game and were committed to winning the game. You could hear it on the bench, you could it hear it during the timeouts."
—Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich after the team's win over High Point clinched at least a share of the North Division in the Big South
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Series History
• Longwood and High Point square off in back-to-back games, the only time this season the Lancers will face the same opponent in consecutive contests.
• The Lancers took down High Point on Tuesday night 70-66 as
Justin Hill,
Isaiah Wilkins and
Zac Watson all scored in double digits.
• In 2020-21, Longwood topped High Point in back-to-back games, with the series taking place in Farmville as part of a COVID-adjusted schedule that saw the two teams meet up on back-to-back days.
• Longwood and High Point have played twice a year for each of the past seven seasons, dating back to the 2015-16 season. In that stretch, Longwood holds a 9-6 edge in matchups.
#HorsePower
