CLEMSON, S.C. -- The Longwood women's basketball team is set to play ACC foe Clemson on Sunday at Littlejohn Coliseum. Tip time is slated for 3:30 p.m., on ACC Network Extra.
STORYLINES
▪ Longwood head coach
Erika Lang-Montgomery and Clemson head coach Amanda Butler were teammates at Florida for two seasons from 1990-92. The pair helped the Gators to a combined 32-24 (.571) record. Both later coached their alma mater, Lang-Montgomery as an assistant (2019-21) and Butler as assistant (1995-97) and then head coach (2007-17). Butler was 190-137 (.581) as head coach at UF, leading the program to eight berths in the postseason.
▪ Longwood and Clemson play for the second time in history on Sunday, with the only other meeting coming Dec. 19, 2014 at Littlejohn Coliseum. The Tigers won that game, 72-56. The Lancers have not defeated an ACC opponent in their Division I history and are 0-29 against the conference since the 2005-06 season.
▪ Sunday's contest continues a stretch where Longwood plays nine of its first 10 games away from home. LU will travel approximately 4,534 miles in that span.
▪ With a free throw with 43 seconds remaining in the first quarter Wednesday at James Madison, graduate guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy became Longwood's all-time career leader in made free throws. She broke Marita Meldere's mark of 343, set in 2005, and now has 346 makes from the line and counting.
▪ Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu pulled down a game- and career-high 15 rebounds in the loss at James Madison Wednesday. It was the most rebounds by a Longwood player since Akila Smith corralled 19 in a 70-61 win over Hampton on March 3, 2022.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Clemson, 3-1 on the season, is coming off of a 109-40 loss to top-ranked South Carolina in Columbia on Thursday. The Tigers boast three players who average double-figure points, led by Amari Robinson at 16.5 per game. Robinson is also pacing the team with 7.0 rebounds per game.
The Tigers, who opened the season 3-0 for the second consecutive season, topped Big South members Winthrop, 71-41, and Charleston Southern, 85-55, last week at home. The victory over the Eagles was the 300th of head coach Amanda Butler's career.
LAST TIME OUT
Longwood dropped a 84-50 decision at preseason Sun Belt Conference favorite and 2023 NCAA tournament participant, James Madison, on Wednesday. The Lancers were up by as many as six points early and led, 12-11, through the first-quarter media timeout before the Dukes clamped down on defense, denying Longwood a field goal for 5:30 while getting in gear themselves offensively.
Anne-Hamilton LeRoy paced the Lancers, going 4-for-8 from the floor for 11 points, two assists and a steal.
LANCERS FOURTH IN BIG SOUTH POLL
Longwood was picked fourth in the 2023-24 Big South preseason poll, announced at the conference media day in Concord, N.C., on Oct. 17.
The fourth-place tag marks the Lancers' second-highest predicted finish since joining the league for the 2012-13 season.
High Point, the Big South runner up a season ago, was chosen first with eight first-place votes and 80 total points, followed by Presbyterian and Radford in a tie for second with 61 points. The Blue Hose earned the final nod for the top spot in the poll.
BACK FOR MORE
Among the Lancers' four returning starters are 2023 All-South second-team selections Adriana Shipp-Davis and Anne-Hamilton LeRoy. Shipp-Davis is a preseason All-Big South first teamer this year after ranking fourth in the Big South in scoring at 13.9 points per game, while LeRoy earned a spot on the preseason second team following a season that saw her seventh in scoring (13.4).
TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is among the NCAA's active career leaders in several statistical categories. Those are: games played (123, 27th in Division I, 28th in all NCAA divisions), points (1,248, 95th in Division I and 152nd in all divisions), free throws made (346, 31st in Division I and 44th in all divisions) and free throws attempted (452, 30th in Division I and 40th in all divisions).
POUTINE, PLEASE
Hailing from Montreal, Quebec, freshman forward Frances Ulysse is the first player from north of the border to suit up for Longwood in its Division I history, which began in 2004-05. Ulysse averaged 15.2 points and 9.2 rebounds in 2022-23 at Vanier College, earning regional all-star honors.
Since the 2010-11 season, only eight other foreign-born student-athletes have played for the Lancers. They are: Mina Jovanovic, of Smederevska Palanka, Serbia, from 2010-12, Mieke Elkington, of Hamilton, New Zealand, from 2011-13, Jovana Vukovic, of Bar, Montenegro, in 2016-17, Rosemary Ilang, of Abuja, Nigeria, from 2017-19, Kristina Antonenko, of Moscow, Russia, from 2017-19, Milou Vennema, of Groningen, Netherlands, from 2018-23, Andrijana Reljic, of Sarajevo, Bosnia, from 2019-21 and Geassy Germano, of São Paulo, Brazil, from 2021-23.
RECORD BOOK TALK
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy, the newly minted school-record holder in career made free throws, is also, seventh in free-throw percentage (.765) and 14th in career points (1,248), just three points from tying Akila Smith for 13th in history.
Additionally, senior guard Janay Turner turned in the seventh best single-season mark for free-throw percentage in 2022-23, hitting on .836 (92-of-110) of her freebies in her first season in Farmville after transferring from Norfolk State. Turner's mark ranked 69th in the NCAA a season ago.
NEXT TO 1,000?
Redshirt-senior guard Adriana Shipp-Davis comes into play needing 204 points to reach the 1,000-point milestone for her career. The 2023 Preseason All-Big South First Team honoree posted 21 double-figure scoring games, including seven with 20-plus points, last season. She has scored in double digits 37 times in her career, leading the Lancers to an 18-19 record in those games. When Shipp-Davis goes for 20 or more, which she's done eight times, Longwood has played to a 4-4 record.
Shipp-Davis turned in a career high of 26 points in a 75-65 victory over UNC Asheville on Jan. 11, 2023 while shooting 9-for-14 from the field that day.
FIRSTS IN THE FIRST STATE
Freshman guard Amor Harris made her collegiate debut against Delaware on Thursday, going 1-for-2 from the field with two rebounds in just over seven minutes off the bench. Her first basket came on a pull-up jumper in the paint with 1:57 remaining in the game. All 13 players on the roster have now seen minutes four games into the season.
TURNER FROM DOWNTOWN
On the heels of shooting a career-best 5-for-5 from 3-point range in the 88-59 win over Chowan Nov. 12, Janay Turner is second in the Big South in 3s made with nine. She is 45th in the NCAA in the category. Turner is shooting 60 percent from distance (9-for-15), which is also second in the conference and 26th in the nation.
She averages 2.25 treys made per game, fourth best in the league and 179th in the country. Finally, Turner is second in the Big South and 121st nationally with 55 total points.
ANNE THE THIEF
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy leads the Big South in steals with nine and is second in steals per game with 2.25. Those figures are 64th and 228th in Division I, respectively. As a team, the Lancers rank first in the league in steals per game (13.5), which is 26th in the nation.
NO SOUP FOR YOU!
Longwood leads the Big South in blocks per game at 3.0. Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu leads the team with four of the Lancers' 12 rejections, followed by classmate Frances Ulysse and junior Laney Bone with three each.
TAKING CARE OF THE ROCK
Longwood leads the Big South in turnover margin at 3.75. The Lancers commit an average of 18 per game (third best in the league), while forcing 21.75, which also leads the conference and is 51st nationally.
OTAIFO ON THE GLASS
Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu has made an impact on the on the boards for the Lancers in the early going this season. The Valdosta, Ga., native leads the Lancers with 7.8 rebounds per game through four games. That number is third best in the Big South and 189th in the nation.
CENTURY MARK
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is just two made 3-pointers from 100 for her career. In 123 games and 89 starts, the Seneca, S.C., native is 98-for-323 from 3-point range, good for 30.3 percent.
HOME, SWEET HOME
Longwood opened its home slate Nov. 12 with an 88-59 victory over NCAA Division II Chowan, on Homecoming and Alumni Weekend. The game was the first in women's basketball at the new Joan Perry Brock Center, made possible by an initial $15 million gift from Brock, a 1964 alumna and philanthropist. Prior to moving next door to the JPB, the Lancers competed in Willett Hall, opened in 1980, compiling a 312-202 (.607) record since the 1981-82 season.
TURNER PROVIDES SCORING
Aside from Anne-Hamilton LeRoy and Adriana Shipp-Davis, a third starter from the 2022-23 season who averaged double figures returns to the fold in Janay Turner. A 5-foot-8 senior guard from Chicago, Turner registered 10.9 points per game, scoring double digits in 16 of 29 contests. Turner matched her career high of 20 points, originally set at Norfolk State in the 2021-22 season, three times for the Lancers.
She poured in 20 to tie for game-high scoring honors with Shipp-Davis in a 70-68 win over Presbyterian on Jan. 21 and also had 20 points in a 59-50 road win at UNC Asheville on Feb. 25 to help the Lancers clinch a first-round bye in the Big South tournament.
WILLIAMS DEPENDABLE AT POINT
Senior Bailey Williams is also back for her second season for the Lancers after becoming a steady and reliable point guard in 2022-23. Williams averaged 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game while starting in all 30 contests. She played 30.8 minutes per game, a figure that was good for 13th overall in the Big South last season.
A strong defender as well, Williams finished 25th in the conference, swiping 1.1 steals per game. She twice collected a career high of four steals in a game last year – in an 80-70 home victory over Charleston Southern on Jan. 4 and a 97-64 win against USC Upstate on Feb. 15, also at Willett Hall.
