BABSON PARK, Fla. -- The Longwood women's basketball team closes the fall semester at Webber International Wednesday in a 2 p.m., tip at the Sabbagh Athletic Center looking for a fourth win in five games.
STORYLINES
▪ The Lancers and Warriors have never met in women's basketball, but Longwood head coach
Erika Lang-Montgomery has coached against Webber. Lang-Montgomery, the all-time wins leader at NCAA Division II Flagler with 111 from 2009-19, is 1-1 against WIU in her career. That includes an 82-62 victory on Nov. 22, 2011 in St. Augustine, Fla.
▪ Over the last four games, including the Lancers' three victories in the Shirley Duncan Classic Dec. 6-8 and Sunday's loss at Florida, three players are averaging double-figure points. Those three are guards
Amor Harris (14.8 points per game) and
Mariah Wilson (13.0) and forward
Otaifo Esenabhalu (10.3). Wilson scored a career-high 18 points against the Gators, including 13 in the second quarter.
▪ A win on Wednesday would improve Longwood to 8-5 on the season and match the best 13-game start since 2003-04. That team also opened the year 8-5 on its way to a 17-9 overall mark under the program's all-time winningest head coach Shirley Duncan.
▪ Longwood is creating 26.17 turnovers per game, a figure that is sixth best in the NCAA. The Lancers have also forced the most total turnovers (314) of any team in the country. Further, Longwood has caused more turnovers than the opposition in 10-of-12 games this season, going 7-3 in those contests. Longwood also leads the Big South in turnover margin at plus-7.5, which is 24th in Division I.
SCOUTING THE WARRIORS
Webber International, member of the NAIA and the Sun Conference, is 3-4 overall and 1-1 in league play. The Warriors are coming off of a 93-50 loss at NCAA Division II Rollins Monday. Renae Brant led Webber with 13 points while Jaiden Ross had 10 points to go with nine rebounds and a game-high six blocks.
The Warriors are coached by Grady Morrell, the all-time winningest women's basketball coach at the school with 149, in his 14th season.
LAST TIME OUT
Longwood cut a 10-point Florida lead at halftime to just five two minutes into the third quarter, but the Gators pulled away for a 93-65 victory at Exactech Arena on Sunday.
Senior
Mariah Wilson knocked down her fourth 3-pointer of the game at the 8:12 mark in the third to pull the Lancers to within 43-38 before Florida embarked on a 13-0 run and a 29-point frame to take control on its way to a fourth consecutive win.
Wilson scored 13 of her career-high 18 points in the second quarter, including going 3-for-3 from long range and 4-of-4 from the foul line, to help the Lancers trail just 43-33 at the half. The three Wilson treys came in succession as part of a 9-3 LU run late in the half.
Longwood turned UF over eight times in the second and 21 times in the game, outscoring the host, 21-20, in the stanza.
REVISITING THE DUNCAN CLASSIC
Longwood won three games in three days Dec. 6-8 in the Shirley Duncan Classic, the Lancers' first home in-season tournament since 2010-11.
Amor Harris scored a career- high 23 points on 10-for-19 shooting off the bench to lift the Lancers to a 67-60 win over South Carolina State in the opener.
Harris added a team-high 12 points Saturday as Longwood overcame a 10-point third-quarter deficit to beat William & Mary for the first time since 2013, 53-44.
Longwood then rolled to an 81-54 victory over McNeese Sunday, receiving 16 points, a career-high-tying nine steals to go with seven assists from
Kiki McIntyre.
Harris earned MVP honors while McIntyre and sophomore forward
Otaifo Esenabhalu – who recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds against the Cowgirls – were named to the all-tournament team.
As a team, the Lancers caused 31.7 turnovers and tallied 18.3 steals per game in the tournament.
HARRIS BIG SOUTH PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sophomore guard
Amor Harris was named Big South player of the Week on Dec. 10 after earning MVP honors in the Shirley Duncan Classic. Harris averaged 17 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. Her 24 made field goals and 51 points scored in the tournament were the second and 10th most, respectively, in the NCAA for the week ending on Dec. 9.
Harris was the second Longwood player this season to claim weekly honors joining
Frances Ulysse, who was named Co-Big South Player of the Week on Nov. 18.
IF YOU BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM
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 scored a career-high 18 points at Florida Dec. 15, adding a career-best seven steals at Queens on Nov. 18.
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.
FIVE IN DOUBLE FIGURES
In the Lancers' 80-66 win at Queens Nov. 18, five different players landed in double digits. It marked the first time since Feb. 15, 2023, a 97-64 home win over USC Upstate.
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.
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 15 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.
FIRST TO 10 WINS
The Longwood women's and men's basketball teams combined for a 10-4 record to start the season. Longwood was the first of 13 institutions in the state of Virginia that sponsors both sports to double-figure victories.
Norfolk State also started 10-4 with the Spartans' women's team collecting a 57-54 win at the SEC's Missouri on Nov. 10.
The Lancers and NSU are tied for second in the state with 16 wins. George Mason has 17.
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 10-13 under Lang-Montgomery when they make at least five 3-pointers in a game.
REBOUNDING MACHINE
Sophomore
Otaifo Esenabhalu is currently 20th in the NCAA in total rebounds with 108, 27th in offensive rebounds per game with 4.1 and 61st in rebounds per game at 9.0. Esenabhalu leads the Big South in the former two categories and is second in the third.
She has also posted a league-leading seven double-figure rebounding games, including four in the last six contests.
BAND OF THIEVES
Longwood made a season-high 23 steals in its 67-60 victory over South Carolina State Dec. 6. The Lancers have now secured at least 15 steals in a game 12 times under
Erika Lang-Montgomery. The Lancers are 10-2 in those contests. Longwood is averaging 14.5 steals per game this year, which is currently sixth in the NCAA.
Kiki McInytre is third in the nation in total steals with 42,
Mariah Wilson is second in the Big South and 11th in the country with 34 steals and
Malea Brown is third in the league and tied for 31st nationally with 28 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 11 of the first 12 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 10 of the 12 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 32.8 bench points per game in 2024-25, good for 15th in NCAA Division I and second in the Big South.
CONSECUTIVE DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Otaifo Esenabhalu posted back-to-back double-doubles in the wins over Hood on Nov. 10 and at American on Nov. 13.
She 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 picked up her third double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 boards off the bench against Navy Nov. 23 and a fourth with 11 points and 11 rebounds against McNeese Dec. 8. She now has six in her career and is 33rd in the NCAA in the category this season.
ULYSSE BIG SOUTH PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sophomore forward
Frances Ulysse was named Big South Co-Player of the Week on Nov. 18. 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.
MATCHING 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
