Opening Tip
•   Longwood breaks the seal on the new Joan Perry Brock Center on Saturday afternoon with the first basketball game there.
•   The new arena, which seats 3,000 and is in the heart of the Longwood University campus, had its grand opening in August.
•   The home opener is part of Homecoming Weekend for the university.
•   The Lancers have excelled at home under
Griff Aldrich. The team is 54-20 in his five seasons.
•   Over the past two seasons, Longwood is 28-4 in Farmville at their previous home in Willett Hall.
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Johnathan Massie and
Szymon Zapala became the first teammates to score at least 20 points in a game for Longwood since Dec. 11, 2021, when
DeShaun Wade and Justin Hill managed the feat.
•   The Lancers snared 21 offensive rebounds in the game, with Zapala and
Michael Christmas combining for 12 between them.
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LAST TIME OUT
•   Longwood opened the season with a trip to St. Bonaventure to take on one of the top projected teams in the Atlantic 10.
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Johnathan Massie and
Szymon Zapala led Longwood in a narrow 73-69 loss that saw 11 ties and eight lead changes between two evenly matched teams.
•   Massie poured in 23 points on the perimeter, and Zapala added a career best 20 points and 11 rebounds.
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Michael Christmas chipped in with a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, and
Walyn Napper tallied 14 points.
•   Charles Pride led the Bonnies with 21 points, and Kyrell Luc hit the game winning layup with 1:37 to play that broke a 67-67 tie for good.
•   The Lancers rebounded like maniacs, grabbing 21 offensive rebounds that represented better than 50 percent of their misses.
BY THE NUMBERS
•   Longwood snared 21 offensive rebounds in their season opener, tied for the most offensive rebounds in a game in a decade.
•   Thanks to the hustle on the offensive glass, the Lancers outrebounded St. Bonaventure by 16. Longwood was one of the top rebounding teams in the Big South a season ago with a +3.2 rebounding margin.
•   All the offensive rebounds led to 23 second-chance points for the Lancers.
•   The Lancers attacked the paint and racked up 42 points in the painted area in their season opener. The team scored at least 40 points in the paint six times a season ago.
•   Szymon Zapala and Johnathan Massie both scored 20 points or more in the game at St. Bonaventure on November 6, the first time the Lancers have had a pair of 20-point scorers in a game since the 2021-22 season.
•   The duo of Zapala and Michael Christmas had matching double-doubles in the game at St. Bonaventure, the first time the Lancers have had two players with a double-double under head coach Griff Aldrich.
•   Longwood also had four players score in double figures at St. Bonaventure on November 6. The team had four or more players score in double figures 12 times last season.
•   In Farmville under Griff Aldrich, the Lancers have been tough to beat. In Willett Hall, the team posted a 54-20 record in five seasons, and they went 28-4 in the last two seasons.
•   The Lancers have averaged 17.6 wins per year in five years under Aldrich. In the team's first 11 seasons as a Division I eligible program, the Lancers averaged 10 wins per season.
•   Longwood is the only team in the Big South with an active streak of back-to-back 20-win seasons.
•   The 46 wins are the most in a two year span since the team won 47 games combined over two seasons from 1979-1981.
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QUOTABLE
"They really competed throughout the game. We outrebounded them by 16 and had 21 offensive rebounds. Szymon had seven, Mike had five. We really competed at a very high level for 32 minutes of the game. So I'm extremely proud of what I saw tonight...This is a really eager team, but it is inexperienced. We'll get better. Lancer nation should be really excited about what they saw tonight. This is a team that, if they continue to keep building, could be really good."
—Longwood Head Coach Griff Aldrich after St. Bonaventure
#GoWood #HorsePower
