FARMVILLE, Va. — The Longwood women's basketball team and Navy, which is receiving votes in the latest CollegeInsider.com mid-major top 25 poll, meet on the hardwood for the first time in 33 seasons on Saturday at the Joan Perry Brock Center in a 1 p.m., tip.

STORYLINES
▪ The two last played on Feb. 25, 1991 at Halsey Field House in Annapolis, Md., a 74-62 Navy win. Angie Dobbs scored a game-high 30 points for the Midshipmen, while Longwood got 17 points apiece from Cassie Ensley and Cassie Mullenix.
▪ Navy holds a 9-2 advantage in the all-time series. The last Lancers' win was Dec. 2, 1990, a 74-70 victory in the West Chester (Pa.) Dial Classic. That game was one of four times the teams played in the 1990-91 season.
▪ In the Lancers' 80-66 win at Queens on Monday, five different Longwood players landed in double figures, led by Frances Ulysse with 14 points. It marked the first time five scored double digits since Feb. 15, 2023 in a 97-64 home win over USC Upstate.
▪ Longwood sophomore forward Frances Ulysse was named Big South Co-Player of the Week prior to the game Monday. She averaged 12.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in a 1-1 week that featured Longwood's first win over American since the 2006-07 season.
▪ Longwood is forcing 27.83 turnovers per game, a figure that is 11th best in the NCAA. The Lancers have created more turnovers than the opposition in five of the six games this season and have gone 4-1 in those contests. Longwood also leads the Big South Conference in turnover margin at plus-7.67, which is 35th in Division I.

SCOUTING THE MIDSHIPMEN
Navy enters play Saturday at 5-0 for the first time since 2017-18 and has outscored the opposition by 24 points per game to begin the year. The Midshipmen last played Sunday, outlasting Radford in overtime, 78-73, at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

Sophomore guard Zanai Barnett-Gay leads the Mids with 15.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game. She and freshman guard Mary Gibbons swept the league's player and rookie of the week honors, respectively, on Monday.

Navy leads the Patriot League in 13 statistical categories as a team, including scoring offense (77.8 points per game), scoring defense (53.8) and scoring margin (24.0).

LAST TIME OUT
Longwood had five players score in double figures, led by Frances Ulysse with 14, as the Lancers defeated Queens, 80-66, Monday.

Ulysse shot 6-for-10 from the field and pulled down seven rebounds in the win. Mariah Wilson and Otaifo Esenabhalu scored 12 points each while Amor Harris chipped in a career-high 11 and Malea Brown tallied 10.

The Lancers shot 46 percent from the floor, connecting on 29 field goals, also going 17-for-28 from the foul line. Longwood forced 26 Queens turnovers, leading to 15 points.

The Lancers trailed after the first quarter, but built a 37-28 advantage halftime. Longwood benefited from 10 Royals' turnovers and hit nine of its 10 shots from the line in that period. LU did not lose the lead after the break.

COMMONWEALTH LEADERS
Through games of Nov. 21, the Longwood women's and men's basketball teams have combined for a 9-2 record, which is the best mark of any of the 13 NCAA Division I institutions in the state that sponsor both sports.

Norfolk State is currently 9-3 with the Spartans' women's team sitting at 5-1, including a 57-54 win at the SEC's Missouri on Nov. 10.

IF YOU BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM
Senior guard Mariah Wilson transferred to Longwood after playing her first three seasons and 60 career games at Towson from 2021-24. Wilson averaged 1.5 points and 0.6 rebounds per game in 5.8 minutes for the Tigers.

When head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery brought her team to TU Arena Nov. 12, 2022, Wilson played three minutes in an 83-72 Towson victory.

Wilson, who has earned her first four collegiate starts this season, scored a season-high 12 points, adding a career-best seven steals at Queens on Monday.

LANCERS SEVENTH IN BIG SOUTH POLL
Longwood was picked seventh in the 2024-25 Big South preseason poll. The Lancers earned  30 points in the poll, ahead of Presbyterian (23 points) and UNC Asheville (17).

High Point was chosen first with five first-place votes and 76 total points, followed by Radford with 57 points and one first-place nod and Charleston Southern with 55 points. Winthrop in fourth, Gardner-Webb in sixth and the Blue Hose in eighth received the remaining first-place votes.

LUCKY 7
The Lancers will play half of their 14 non-conference games in the friendly confines of the Joan Perry Brock Center this season. That reflects a stark contrast from 2023-24 in which Longwood played seven consecutive non-league games away from Farmville from Nov. 15 at James Madison to Dec. 17 at William & Mary, traveling approximately 4,534 miles in that span.

SHIRLEY DUNCAN CLASSIC
The Lancers are set to host their first  in-season tournament since the 2010-11 season when South Carolina State, McNeese and William & Mary join Longwood in Farmville for the Shirley Duncan Classic on Dec. 6-8.

The event is named in honor of Shirley Duncan, the all-time winningest coach in Longwood women's basketball history. A 2016 Longwood athletics hall of fame inductee, and one of four associated with the women's basketball program to be part of the hall of fame, Duncan led the Lancers to a 355-263 (.575) record from 1983-05 with four NCAA Division II tournament appearances.

LET'S PLAY TWO!
Longwood freshman forward Montgomery Bedford, a 6-foot-2 native of Baltimore, Md., and product of Baltimore City College, who was recruited to Farmville to play women's lacrosse for the Lancers, walked onto the women's basketball team this fall. Bedford is believed to be one of just four dual-sport student-athletes on Division I women's basketball rosters this season.

The others are Santa Clara forward Lauren Glover, who also plays for the Broncos' women's volleyball team; Cincinnati guard Daylee Dunn, also a member of the Bearcats' track and field team and Cal State Fullerton guard/forward Samantha Schuler, who is also on the Titans' track and field team.

Bedford is the first two-sport student-athlete to play women's basketball at Longwood since Mallory Odell did it from 2017-21, also playing for the softball team.

MS. 1,000
Longwood graduate student point guard Kiki McInytre needs 79 points to reach 1,000 for her career. The Boston native averaged 6.6 points per game last season, appearing in all 30 contests. She averaged 10.9 points per game in 61 games playing at NCAA Division II St Leo, scoring 663 points from 2020-23.

STUDENT-ATHLETES
No fewer than 10 Longwood women's basketball student-athletes were named to the 2023-24 Big South Presidential Honor Roll in June. To be included on the list, student-athletes must maintain at least a 3.0 grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale) for the academic year.

The players who achieved the feat were Lainey Bone, Malea Brown, Stephanie Davis, Otaifo Esenabhalu, Amor Harris, Kiki McIntyre, Nalani Simmons, Janay Turner Frances Ulysse and Bailey Williams.

Additionally, the Lancers earned their highest semester team grade-point average in history at 3.42 in the spring with McIntyre, Simmons and Turner collecting perfect 4.0 GPAs for the term.

STUDENT-ATHLETES, PART II
Kiki McIntyre and Bailey Williams were named to the 2023-24 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team®. To be eligible, student-athletes must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 and be starter or key contributor to their team.

THREE'S COMPANY
The Lancers went 9-for-27 (33.3 percent) from 3-point range against Hood Nov. 10. It marked the the second time this season and fourth in head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery's Longwood tenure that the Lancers made that many from distance.

The Lancers also went 9-for-20 (45 percent) at Norfolk State on Nov. 7.

Longwood buried 10 from downtown in an 88-59 homecoming win over Chowan Nov. 12, 2023 and nine more in a 77-64 loss at Presbyterian on Feb. 8, 2023.

The Lancers are 9-12 under Lang-Montgomery when they make at least five 3-pointers in a game.

BAND OF THIEVES
Longwood made 16 steals in its 59-41 victory at American Nov. 13. It was the ninth time under Erika Lang-Montgomery that the team had at least 15 steals in a game. The Lancers are 8-1 in those contests. Longwood is averaging 14.7 steals per game this year, which is currently 14th in the NCAA.

Individually, Mariah Wilson leads the Big South and is 11th in the country with 17 steals, while Malea Brown and Kiki McInytre are tied for 32nd nationally with 15 steals.

Longwood led the Big South and finished 21st in the country in steals per game at 10.7 last season. McIntyre led the league at 2.77 per game, good for 20th in the NCAA, while she collected 83 total steals, which also led the league and was 29th in the country.

SPREADING THE LOVE
In the first six games of the season, at least eight players put their names in the scoring column.

In the Nov. 10 102-21 homecoming victory over Hood, 12 of the 13 players on the roster scored points.

BENCH PRODUCTION
Longwood outscored the opponent bench in 13 games in 2023-24 and has done so in all six games this season.

The Lancers posted an overwhelming 60-6 edge from its reserves – the largest margin of the season – as Longwood drubbed Hood, 102-21 on Nov. 10.

Longwood is averaging 37.3 bench points per game in 2024-25, good for 12th in NCAA Division I and first in the Big South.

CONSECUTIVE DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Sophomore  Otaifo Esenabhalu posted back-to-back double-doubles in the wins over Hood on Nov. 10 and at American on Nov. 13.

The Valdosta, Ga., native tallied 12 points and 13 rebounds against the Blazers and game highs of 10 points and 13 boards versus the Eagles.

They were the first consecutive double-doubles for a Longwood player since Akila Smith accomplished the feat on two separate occasions in the Lancers' Big South championship season of 2021-22. Smith last did it at North Carolina A&T (Dec. 29, 2021 and Presbyterian (Jan. 1, 2022), both Longwood victories.

Esenabhalu has four career double-doubles and her two this season are the 11th most in the NCAA.

MATCHING THE BEST D-I START
The Lancers won three of their first four games for only the third time in their Division I history.

Longwood won its first three games of the 2006-07 season, beating American, Norfolk State and North Florida, before falling at William & Mary that year.

 In 2013-14, the Lancers dropped the opener at Seton Hall before defeating William & Mary, Utah Valley and Xavier.

WINNING THE FIRST ONE
The Lancers' season-opening 81-70 win against Lincoln (Pa.) on Nov. 4 at the Joan Perry Brock Center marked Longwood's first victory to begin a season since defeating Campbell, 71-48, in the Lancer Classic at Willett Hall on Nov. 12, 2010.

BACK TO WHERE IT BEGAN
The Lancers will take a trip to Gainesville, Fla., on Dec. 15 to clash with the Florida Gators. The matchup represents a homecoming for head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery, a 1995 Florida graduate and 1989 SEC All-Freshman Team selection.

Following her time as head coach at Flagler, Lang-Montgomery returned to Florida as an assistant coach from 2019-22 on the staffs of Cam Newbauer (2019-21) and Kelly Rae Finley (2021-22), respectively.