CLINTON, S.C. -- The Longwood women's basketball team treks to Presbyterian Saturday to take on the Blue Hose at the Templeton Center Saturday at 2 p.m. Matt Castillo and Alex Smith will have the call on ESPN+.
STORYLINES
▪ Saturday marks the 29th meeting between Longwood and Presbyterian, dating to a 70-67 Lancers' victory Nov. 19, 1994 in Farmville. The teams met twice in the 1994-95 season with Longwood winning the second contest as well, 78-72, at home March 4. Presbyterian, though, holds a 16-12 overall edge, with a 6-5 advantage in Clinton.
▪ The Lancers came back to win, 66-
58, against USC Upstate Wednesday when trailing at the start of the fourth quarter for the first time this season. Longwood, which was down 39-38, with 10 minutes to play, last pulled off the feat Feb. 18, 2023 in a 65-63 victory at Radford.
▪ Janay Turner caught fire in the fourth quarter against the Spartans Wednesday, scoring 14 of her game-high 20 points in the stanza to help the Lancers knock off Upstate, which previously was unbeaten in the Big South. Turner went 5-for-5 from the field in the final period, including 3-for-3 from 3-point range, finishing 7-of-13 overall and 5-for-7 from downtown.
▪ The Lancers posted their highest-scoring quarter of the season with 28 points in the fourth Wednesday against USC Upstate. Longwood shot 7-for-11 (63.6 percent) from the field in the frame.
▪ Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is currently 38th all-time in the Big South in scoring with 1,378 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 fourth all-time in the Big South in games played with 136, and made her 100th career start Jan. 10 at Radford.
SCOUTING THE BLUE HOSE
Presbyterian is 11-9 overall and 2-3 in the Big South Conference after falling, 76-55, at High Point on Wednesday. Mara Neira and Tilda Sjökvist led the Blue Hose with 12 points apiece, while Neira added a game-high 10 rebounds for her first career double-double.
Neira (13.0), Bryanna Brady (12.6) and Sjökvist (12.1) all average double-figure points per game, and Brady shoots 52.9 percent from the field.
As a team, Presbyterian leads the league in offensive (2.8) and defensive (25.8) rebounds per game, rebounding margin (plus-2.8), assists per game (13.5) and assist-to-turnover ratio (0.74).
LAST TIME OUT
Senior guard Janay Turner scored 20 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter, helping Longwood to a 66-58 victory over USC Upstate in Big South Conference action at the Joan Perry Brock Center Wednesday.
Turner was 5-for-5 from the floor and 3-for-3 from 3-point range in the final 10 minutes as the Lancers dealt the Spartans their first loss of the season in league play. She finished 7-for-13 from the floor and 5-of-7 from distance.
Longwood posted its highest-scoring quarter of the season with 28 in the fourth, erasing a slim 39-38 deficit. LU was 11-for-18 from the foul line in the frame and finished the game 13-of-22 from the charity stripe.
The Lancers shot 23-for-52 from the field for 44.2 percent, including connecting on 14-of-26 attempts in the first half for 53.8 percent.
TOUGH NON-CONFERENCE SLATE
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 101-65 (.608), as of Friday.
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 (136, 34th in Division I, 35th in all NCAA divisions), points (1,368, 98th in Division I, 164th in all divisions), free throws made (369, 35th in Division I) and free throws attempted (484, 36th 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.
CRASHIN' THE BOARDS
Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu has grabbed at least eight rebounds per game in five of the last seven games, dating to Dec. 22 against Georgia Southern when she collected nine. Esenabhalu is averaging 6.4 boards in that span, with an average of 7.2 in five Big South Conference games to rank sixth in the league. She is fifth in offensive (2.8) and ninth in defensive (4.4) rebounds.
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 104th overall in Division I.
Longwood has outscored the opponent bench against Chowan Nov. 12, at Stony Brook Dec. 11, at Charleston Southern Jan. 6, versus UNC Asheville Jan. 13 and against USC Upstate Wednesday.
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 (369), is also eighth in free-throw percentage (76.2) and 10th in career points (1,378), three points from passing Jill Younce (1996-00) or ninth.
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 83 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 136 games and 101 starts, the Seneca, S.C., native is 101-for-343 from 3-point range, good for 29.4 percent.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
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 11 players in the league to achieve the feat this season.
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 beat USC Upstate, 66-58, Wednesday while shooting 44.2 percent (23-for-52) overall as a team and 53.8 percent in the first half. The Lancers limited Upstate to 35.7 percent on the night in the win, as well, and are now to 9-3 overall under head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery and 4-3 in 2023-24 when outshooting the opposition.
SHUFFLING THE DECK
Longwood has employed five different starting lineups in 17 games so far this season. The five-player group of Kiki McIntyre, Anne-Hamilton LeRoy, Janay Turner, Fances Ulysse and Adriana Shipp-Davis have started a team-high six consecutive games and are 2-4 together.
LeRoy and Turner have started in all 17 games while Ulysse and Malea Brown have started 11 games each.
CONTROLLING THE BOARDS
Longwood has played to a 6-3 record when outrebounding 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-20 rebounding margin in their four victories.
SHIPP-DAVIS SPARKS LANCERS
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 17 games this season, including five of the last 10.
SECOND IN LEAGUE IN SCORING
Longwood is second in the Big South in scoring average at 61.2 points per game, which is 254th in the nation.
20-POINT SCORERS
Janay Turner collected her second 20-point game of the season Wednesday against USC Upstate. The Lancers now have five games of at least 20 points this season. Senior guard Adriana Shipp-Davis scored a season-high 20 points against Norfolk State Dec. 31. She joined Anne-Hamilton LeRoy (23 Dec. 22 versus Georgia Southern), Turner (career-high 22 Nov. 29 at Ohio) and Malea Brown (20 Nov. 12 versus Chowan).
This season, there have been 50 games in which a player has scored at least 20 points in the Big South from 21 different individuals.
FREE THROWS WIN BALLGAMES
The Lancers lead the league in free throw attempts (18.47), which is 96th best in the country. Longwood is second in the Big South in free throws made per game at 12.59, a figure that is 124th in the nation. The Lancers are fifth in the league in free throw percentage (68.2), which is 239th nationally.
Individually, Janay Turner ranks fourth in the league in both free throws attempted (83, 90th in Division I) and free throws made (60, 106th in Division I).
LU AMONG LEADERS IN STEALS
As a team, the Lancers are second in the Big South in steals per game (10.5), which is 42nd in the nation.
Junior guard Kiki McIntyre leads the league in steals per game (2.18, 88th in Division I) and is second in total steals (37, 79th in Division I). Fellow junior guard Malea Brown ranks fourth in the league and 192nd nationally in steals per game at 1.82.
TURNER FROM DOWNTOWN
Janay Turner went 5-for-7 from 3-point range in Wednesday's win over USC Upstate, matching her career high for 3-point makes in a game, and is shooting 40 percent (30-for-75) from distance on the year. Turner is seventh in the Big South Conference, averaging 1.76 treys per game, good for 238th in the country.
As a team, the Lancers are fourth in the league in 3-point field goal percentage at 30.6 percent, which is 190th nationally.
OTAIFO ON THE GLASS
Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu has made an impact on the boards for the Lancers this season. She leads Longwood with 5.8 rebounds per game through 17 games.
Esenabhalu is one of just six 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.
