CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The Longwood women's basketball team is poised to take on Charleston Southern at Buccaneer Fieldhouse Saturday at 2 p.m. Larry Sienko and John Peters will have the call on ESPN+.
STORYLINES
▪ Saturday marks the 27th meeting between Longwood and Charleston Southern, dating to a 70-55 Lancers' victory Jan. 5, 2006 in Charleston. Longwood holds a 14-12 edge in the series, but it is tied, 5-5, at Buccaneer Fieldhouse. The teams split their games last season, each winning at home.
▪ Adriana Shipp-Davis is three boards from reaching 500 for her career and 108 points from 1,000. If she does, Shipp-Davis will be just the 80th player in Big South Conference history to be part of the 1,000/500 club.
▪ Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is currently 42nd all-time in the Big South in scoring with 1,340 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 fifth all-time in the Big South in games played with 132.
▪ Longwood's non-conference slate was set up to be a challenge and it has proven to be. The 10 non-league teams who have beaten the Lancers this season own a combined record of 78-49 (.614), as of Thursday.
▪ 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.
▪ With 20 points and 15 rebounds versus Norfolk State Dec. 31, Adriana Shipp-Davis tallied the 13th double-double in the league this season.
SCOUTING THE BUCCANEERS
Charleston Southern is 4-10 overall and 1-0 in Big South play after earning a 61-57 win on the road at Presbyterian on Wednesday. The Buccaneers are led in scoring by Catherine Alben and Kennedi Jackson, who average 15.9 and 11.6 points per game, respectively. Jackson is also CSU's leading rebounder, grabbing 5.3 boards per game.
As a team, the Bucs lead the Big South in both rebounding (39.14 per game) and 3-point percentage (32.2).
LAST TIME OUT
Longwood dropped its conference opener to Winthrop, 58-53, Wednesday at the Joan Perry Brock Center. Janay Turner led the Lancers with 17 points and three 3-pointers while Adriana Shipp-Davis added 13 points and Otaifo Esenabhalu collected nine rebounds. Longwood used a 14-2 run spanning halftime to take a 27-26 advantage with 6:33 remaining in the third quarter and later led, 31-30, but the Eagles opened a seven-point advantage in the fourth and fended off a comeback attempt by the Lancers for the win.
LEROY AT HOME AGAINST CSU
In seven career games against Charleston Southern, Anne-Hamilton LeRoy averages 14.9 points and 4.3 rebounds, tops among current Lancers with experience against CSU. She shoots 45.1 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from distance versus CSU.
500-REBOUND CLUB
Adriana Shipp-Davis is just three 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 (132, 37th in Division I, 36th in all NCAA divisions), points (1,340, 96th in Division I, 161st in all divisions), free throws made (361, 37th 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) 10th in career points (1,340).
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 108 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 130 games and 95 starts, the Seneca, S.C., native is 101-for-340 from 3-point range, good for 29.7 percent.
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 21.7 points per game, a figure that is third in the Big South and 117th overall in Division I. UNC Asheville leads the league in the category at 28.4 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.
SHUFFLING THE DECK
Longwood has employed five different starting lineups in 13 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 13 games while Esenabhalu has drawn eight starts, with Frances Ulysse starting seven games and Bone six.
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 seven of 13 games this season, including five of the last seven.
TOPS IN BIG SOUTH IN SCORING
Longwood leads the Big South in scoring average at 610.7 points per game, which is 258th 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 36 games in which a player has scored at least 20 points in the Big South from 19 different individuals.
FREE THROWS WIN BALLGAMES
Longwood leads the Big South in free throws made per game at 12.54, a figure that is 126th in the nation. The Lancers also lead the league in free throw attempts (18.23), which is 105th best in the country. The Lancers are third in the league in free throw percentage (68.8), which is 210th nationally.
Individually, Janay Turner ranks third in the league in free throws made (53, 48th in Division I), and fourth in free throw attempts (71, 53rd in Division I), sixth in free throw percentage (74.6, 214th in Division I).
LU LEADS LEAGUE IN STEALS
As a team, the Lancers are first in the Big South in steals per game (10.6), 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 39.3 percent (22-for-56) from distance.
As a team, the Lancers are third in the Big South in 3-point field goal percentage at 30 percent, good for 200th 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 13 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.
