FARMVILLE, Va. -- The Longwood women's basketball team opens Big South Conference play Wednesday when it hosts Winthrop at the Joan Perry Brock Center at 7 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN+ with Blaine McCormick and Justin Dalton on the call.
STORYLINES
â–ª Longwood is 4-7 in Big South openers all-time, having won three of their last four games to begin the league schedule, including three in a row from 2019-21.
â–ª Wednesday marks the 31st all-time meeting between Longwood and Winthrop, dating to a 64-62 Lancers' victory on Feb. 10, 1978 in Rock Hill, S.C. The Eagles hold a 17-13 edge in the series, but Longwood leads, 9-5, in Farmville. Longwood's last win in the series came Feb. 12, 2022, a 78-56 road decision.
â–ª Adriana Shipp-Davis secured her fifth career double-double against Norfolk State with a season-high 20 points and career-high-tying 15 rebounds.
â–ª Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is currently 43rd all-time in the Big South in scoring with 1,334 points and is one of just 141 players in league history to score 1,000 career points. LeRoy is tied for 10th all-time in scoring at Longwood. She is also tied for seventh all-time in the Big South in games played with 131.
â–ª Longwood's non-conference slate was set up to be a challenge and it has proven to be. The 10 teams who have beaten the Lancers this season own a combined record of 76-48 (.613), as of Tuesday.
â–ª 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.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Winthrop comes into play Wednesday at 6-7 overall on the season having lost its last two games, at North Florida, 55-49, on Dec. 20 and at Florida, 73-36, on Saturday.
The Eagles are led by Marissa Gasaway who averages 9.7 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Gasaway leads the Big South in rebounds (129, 23rd nationally), offensive boards (4.3 per game, seventh in the country) and rebounds per game (27th in the nation). Jada Ryce also leads the league in total steals (26, 120th overall) and is tied for the conference lead, averaging 2.0 steals per game, which is 137th best in the country.
As a team, Winthrop is tops in the Big South in turnovers forced per game at 20.69, good for 32nd in the Division I.
LAST TIME OUT
Longwood closed the calendar year falling 76-59 to Norfolk State on Sunday at the Joan Perry Brock Center. The Lancers led by one at halftime and by as many as four points in the third quarter before the Spartans, who are ranked No. 19 in the latest CollegeInsider.com mid-major top 25 poll, engineered an 18-0 run over five-plus minutes to take over.
Norfolk State's Kierra Wheeler scored 30 points and grabbed 16 boards for NSU while Adriana Shipp-Davis secured her fifth career double-double with 20 points and a career-high-tying 15 rebounds.
500-REBOUND CLUB
Adriana Shipp-Davis is just eight rebounds away from 500 for her career. When she reaches the milestone, Shipp-Davis will be just the 134th player in Big South Conference history to do so.
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.
LANCERS FOURTH IN BIG SOUTH POLL
Longwood was picked fourth in the 2023-24 Big South preseason poll, announced 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.
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 (131, 41st in Division I, 43rd in all NCAA divisions), points (1,334, 96th in Division I, 162nd in all divisions), free throws made (361, 36th in Division I) and free throws attempted (472, 38th 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.
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 (361), is also eighth in free-throw percentage (76.5) and tied for 10th in career points (1,334) with Chelsea Coward (2009-13).
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 121 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 41 times in her career, leading the Lancers to an 18-23 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.
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 22.5 points per game, a figure that is third in the Big South and 103rd overall in Division I. UNC Asheville leads the league in the category at 29.1 points per game.
Longwood outscored the opponent bench against Chowan Nov. 12 and at Stony Brook Dec. 11.
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.
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 130 games and 95 starts, the Seneca, S.C., native is 101-for-337 from 3-point range, good for 30 percent.
SHUFFLING THE DECK
Longwood has employed five different starting lineups in 12 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 12 games while Esenabhalu has drawn eight starts, with Bone and Frances Ulysse starting six games each.
CONTROLLING THE BOARDS
Longwood has played to a 5-3 record when it outrebounds its opponent in two seasons under head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. The Lancers are 2-1 when doing so this season with a combined plus-26 rebounding margin in their two 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 six of 12 games this season, including four of the last six.
TOPS IN BIG SOUTH IN SCORING
Longwood leads the Big South in scoring average at 61.3 points per game, which is 246th in the nation.
20-POINT SCORERS
Redshirt-senior guard Adriana Shipp-Davis scored a season-high 20 points against Norfolk State on Sunday 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 32 games in which a player has scored at least 20 points in the Big South from 18 different individuals.
FREE THROWS WIN BALLGAMES
Longwood leads the Big South in free throws made per game at 12.75, a figure that is 122nd in the nation. The Lancers also lead the league in free throw attempts (18.25), which is 105th best in the country. The Lancers are third in the league in free throw percentage (69.9), which is 179th nationally.
Individually, Janay Turner ranks third in the league in free throws made (47, 86th in Division I) and fourth in both free throw percentage (77, 187th in Division I) and fifth in free throws attempts (61, 99th in Division I).
LONGWOOD LEADS LEAGUE IN STEALS
As a team, the Lancers are first in the Big South in steals per game (10.7), which is 44th in the nation.
Junior guards Malea Brown and Kiki McIntyre are first and third in the league, in steals per game, averaging 2.0 and 1.75 per game, respectively.
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 39.6 percent (19-for-48) from distance.
As a team, the Lancers are second in the Big South in 3-point field goal percentage at 31 percent, good for 171st 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 5.2 rebounds per game through 12 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.
TURNER PROVIDES SCORING
Janay Turner, a 5-foot-8 senior guard from Chicago, registered 10.9 points per game, scoring double digits in 16 of 29 contests in 2022-23. Turner matched her then-career high of 20 points, originally set at Norfolk State in the 2021-22 season, three times for the Lancers last season.
She set a new career high in the win over Ohio Nov. 29, scoring 22 points on 6-for-13 shooting, also going a perfect 9-for-9 at the free-throw line.
Turner scored 16 points on 4-for-10 shooting against the Spartans on Dec. 31.
