FARMVILLE, Va. -- The Longwood women's basketball team is set to host UNC Asheville at the Joan Perry Brock Center in a Big South Conference matchup Saturday at 2 p.m. Nathan Epstein and Justin Dalton will call the action on ESPN+.
The contest is Longwood's Fight for Literacy Game and the Virginia Children's Book Festival will also host a book drive. Fans are encouraged to to bring two new or gently used books in exchange for a ticket. Finally, the first 100 students through the doors Saturday will receive a free Chick-fil-A sandwich.
STORYLINES
▪ Saturday marks the 29th meeting between Longwood and UNC Asheville, dating to a 66-50 Bulldogs' victory Feb. 2, 2005 in Asheville. UNC Asheville holds a 15-13 overall edge in the series, but Longwood has a 7-5 edge at home, and has won the last six games by an average margin of 4.3 points.
▪ Through three conference games, Kiki McIntyre leads the Big South in steals per game in league games, averaging 3.7 thefts. Otaifo Esenabhalu also sits sixth in rebounding in league contests at 6.7 per game while Janay Turner and Anne-Hamilton LeRoy are 12th and 13th, respectively, in scoring average at 12.3 and 11.3 points per game.
▪ Longwood has outshot its opponent in four consecutive games, dating to a 76-59 loss to Norfolk State on Dec. 31.
▪ Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is currently 38th all-time in the Big South in scoring with 1,368 points and is one of just 141 players in league history to score 1,000 career points. LeRoy is 10th all-time in scoring at Longwood. She is also tied for fourth all-time in the Big South in games played with 134 and made her 100th career start Wednesday at Radford.
▪ Longwood's non-conference slate was set up to be a challenge and it proved to be. The 10 non-league teams who defeated the Lancers this season own a combined record of 94-54 (.635), as of Thursday.
▪ With 20 points and 15 rebounds versus Norfolk State Dec. 31, Adriana Shipp-Davis tallied the 13th double-double in the Big South this season and first for Longwood. She is one of 10 players in the league to achieve the feat.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
UNC Asheville enters Saturday at 6-10 overall and 0-3 in the Big South following a 64-50 home loss to High Point on Wednesday, in which the Bulldogs led 22-6 after the first quarter and 32-29 at halftime. LaImani Simmons led all players with 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting in just 24 minutes off the bench.
McKinley Brooks-Sumpter leads Asheville, averaging 12.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, while Simmons averages 11.6 points and is tops on the team, shooting 30.4 percent from 3-point range. As a team, the Bulldogs lead the Big South in scoring defense (56.5 points per game), scoring margin (plus-2.0), offensive rebounds per game (14.2), field goal percentage defense (37.6), 3-point field goal defense (29.2 percent) and bench points per game (29.3).
LAST TIME OUT
Redshirt senior guard Adriana Shipp-Davis hit a runner in the lane to give Longwood a 59-57 lead with 1:27 to play Wednesday, but Radford's Olivia Wagner nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key 40 seconds later and the Highlanders held on for a 64-59 Big South Conference victory at the Dedmon Center.
Wagner scored a game-high 23 points, shooting a perfect 7-for-7 from 3-point range, to help Radford break a five-game losing streak against Longwood. Wagner, who added four assists and three rebounds, led a group of four Highlanders in double figures. The Big South Player and Freshman of the Week honorees – Ashlyn Traylor-Walker and Joi Williams – tallied 13 and 11 points, respectively, while Taniya Hanner scored 10 for Radford, which shot 40.7 percent from distance and missed just one of its 12 free throws.
Anne-Hamilton LeRoy paced the Lancers with 13 points on 6-for-9 shooting, adding three rebounds, three assists and one steal, and Janay Turner scored 12 points in 31 minutes.
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 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.
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 (134, 37th in Division I, 40th in all NCAA divisions), points (1,368, 93rd in Division I, 158th in all divisions), free throws made (367, 33rd in Division I) and free throws attempted (482, 35th in Division I).
OTAIFO EARNS BIG SOUTH HONOR
Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu earned Big South Freshman of the Week Nov. 20 after averaging three points and 8.5 rebounds at James Madison and Clemson. She tallied career highs of 15 rebounds and three blocks against JMU.
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).
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE BENCH
Longwood's non-starters are averaging 21.5 points per game, a figure that is third in the Big South and 112th overall in Division I. UNC Asheville leads the league in the category at 29.2 points per game.
Longwood has outscored the opponent bench against Chowan Nov. 12, at Stony Brook Dec. 11 and at Charleston Southern Jan. 6.
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 in the building since the 1981-82 season.
POUTINE, PLEASE
Hailing from Montréal, Québec, 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 (367), is also eighth in free-throw percentage (76.1) and 10th in career points (1,368).
Additionally, senior guard Janay Turner turned in the seventh best single-season mark for free-throw percentage in 2022-23, hitting 83.6 (92-of-110) of her freebies in her first season in Farmville. 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 100 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 42 times in her career, leading the Lancers to an 18-24 record in those games. When Shipp-Davis goes for 20 or more, which she's done nine times, Longwood has played to a 4-5 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.
CENTURY MARK
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy hit her 100th career 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter against Georgia Southern Dec. 22, finishing 2-for-5 from distance on the day. In 133 games and 99 starts, the Seneca, S.C., native is 101-for-341 from 3-point range, good for 29.6 percent.
NOTING THE WIN AT OHIO
Longwood's 75-72 victory at Ohio Nov. 29 was its first non-league true road win since beating Lamar, 62-59, in Beaumont, Texas, on Nov. 28, 2021.
Longwood grabbed a season-high 51 rebounds against the Bobcats, marking the most since collecting 54 against Hampton March 3, 2022, a 70-61 win in the Big South quarterfinals.
SHOOTING TRENDS
Longwood earned its first Big South win of the season last Saturday, 66-57, at Charleston Southern while shooting 46 percent (23-for-50) as a team. The Lancers limited CSU to 34.4 percent in the win, as well, and are now to 8-3 overall under head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery and 3-3 in 2023-24 when outshooting the opposition.
SHUFFLING THE DECK
Longwood has employed five different starting lineups in 15 games so far this season. The combination of Malea Brown, Anne-Hamilton LeRoy, Janay Turner, Otaifo Esenabhalu and Laney Bone has started most often, beginning five games for the Lancers. LeRoy and Turner have started in all 15 games while Brown has 11 starts, Frances Ulysse nine and Esenabhalu eight.
CONTROLLING THE BOARDS
Longwood has played to a 6-3 record when it outrebounds its opponent in two seasons under head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. The Lancers are 3-1 when doing so this season with a combined plus-27 rebounding margin in their three victories.
SHIPP-DAVIS EARNS FIRST START
Redshirt senior guard Adriana Shipp-Davis made her first start of the season Dec. 17 at William & Mary and responded well. The Chesapeake, Va., native led the Lancers in scoring with 12 points and grabbed three rebounds in 21 minutes of action. She was 4-for-10 from the field, including going a season-best 3-for-5 from 3-point range in what was the 52nd start of her career. Shipp-Davis has scored double figures in seven of 15 games this season, including five of the last nine.
SECOND IN LEAGUE IN SCORING
Longwood is second in the Big South in scoring average at 60.9 points per game, which is 261st in the nation.
20-POINT SCORERS
Redshirt senior guard Adriana Shipp-Davis scored a season-high 20 points against Norfolk State Dec. 31 to become the fourth Longwood player to score at least that many points in a game this season. She joined Anne-Hamilton LeRoy (23 Dec. 22 versus Georgia Southern), Janay Turner (career-high 22 Nov. 29 at Ohio) and Malea Brown (20 Nov. 12 versus Chowan).
This season, there have been 45 games in which a player has scored at least 20 points in the Big South from 20 different individuals.
FREE THROWS WIN BALLGAMES
Longwood leads the Big South in free throws made per game at 12.53, a figure that is 121st in the nation. The Lancers also lead the league in free throw attempts (18.2), which is 109th best in the country. The Lancers are third in the league in free throw percentage (68.9), which is 212th nationally.
Individually, Janay Turner ranks third in the league in both free throws made (57, 74th in Division I) and free throw attempts (75, 84th in Division I) and fifth in free throw percentage (76, 207th in Division I).
LU AMONG LEADERS IN STEALS
As a team, the Lancers are second in the Big South in steals per game (10.7), which is 38th in the nation.
Junior guard Kiki McIntyre is second in steals (32) and steals per game (2.13), good for 95th and 105th in Division I, respectively. Fellow junior guard Malea Brown ranks third in the league and 191st nationally in steals per game at 1.87.
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 shooting 38.1 percent (24-for-63) from distance.
As a team, the Lancers are fourth in the Big South in 3-point field goal percentage at 29.9 percent, good for 211th in the country.
OTAIFO ON THE GLASS
Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu has made an impact on the boards for the Lancers this season. She leads Longwood with 5.5 rebounds per game through 15 games.
Esenabhalu is one of just five players in the Big South to secure 15 or more boards in a game this season when she grabbed that many at James Madison on Nov. 15. Adriana Shipp-Davis also pulled down 15 Dec. 31 against Norfolk State, tying her career high.
THE ROAD GOES ON FOREVER
Longwood concluded the second-longest road trip in Division I women's basketball Dec. 17 at William & Mary. The Lancers played seven consecutive games away from the Joan Perry Brock Center, traveling approximately 4,534 miles in that span.
Middle Tennessee completed an eight-game trip from Nov. 18-Dec. 10, traversing four states and the Bahamas in 35 days, playing to a 6-2 record.
