ROCK HILL, S.C. -- The Longwood women's basketball team heads to Winthrop to take on the Eagles at Winthrop Coliseum Saturday at 2 p.m.
STORYLINES
â–ª Saturday marks the 32nd all-time meeting between Longwood and Winthrop, dating to a 64-62 Lancers' victory on Feb. 10, 1978 in Rock Hill. The Eagles hold a 18-13 edge in the series and is 12-3 at home. The last longwood win at Winthrop was Feb. 12, 2022, 78-56.
â–ª Anne-Hamilton LeRoy and GA coach
Mikayla Kinnard have been selected for the WBCA's 21st "So You Want To Be A Coach" class, announced Wednesday. The pair is part of a 55-member group. Longwood is one of two Division I schools with two participants, joining DePaul. The program increases understanding and skills necessary for coaching positions, increases understanding and awareness of competencies for success in coaching, introduces players to coaches and administrators and raises awareness of the existing talent pool of players who want to coach.
â–ª Adriana Shipp-Davis is approaching a pair of milestones, needing 12 points to score 1,000 points and four rebounds for 500 boards in her career. She would be the 142nd player in league history to score 1,000 points and 135th to grab 500 rebounds. If Shipp-Davis is able to join the 1,000/500 club, she'd be the 80th player in Big South history to do so.
▪ Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is currently 35th all-time in the Big South in scoring with 1,406 points – just six points from passing UNC Asheville's Shonese Jones for 34th – and is one of 141 players in league history to score 1,000 career points. LeRoy is eighth all-time in scoring at Longwood. She is also fourth all-time in the Big South in games played with 138, making her 100th start Jan. 10 at Radford.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Winthrop is 10-13 overall and in 4-6 in the Big South, alone in fifth place in the standings. The Eagles have dropped tree of their last four games, including falling at Charleston Southern on Wednesday, 65-50.
Jada Ryce leads the Eagles, averaging 10.8 points and 1.8 steals per game, while shooting 80.3 percent from the foul line. Marissa Gasaway is tops in the Big South in rebounding, averaging 9.6 per game.
Winthrop leads the league in turnovers forced at 19.74 per game, a figure that ranks 39th in the country.
LAST TIME OUT
Malea Brown registered career highs of 23 points and six steals, but USC Upstate survived a late comeback from Longwood to win, 49-45, Wednesday.
Brown drilled 3-pointers on two consecutive possessions in the final minute to knot the game, 45-45, but Upstate's Jeni Levine drew a foul on the other end and nailed both free throws with 3.1 seconds remaining.
The Lancers had one last opportunity but couldn't get the ball in bounds and called timeout. Longwood did not have any remaining and Trinity Johnson hit the resulting technical-foul free throws, putting the game on ice.
 Longwood trailed by as many as 12 points in third quarter and erased a five-point deficit in the fourth as Brown scored 14 points in the final 10 minutes.
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.
REPEAT WEEKLY HONORS
Forward Otaifo Esenabhalu recorded her first career double-double against Regent Jan. 27 with a career-high 16 points and 15 rebounds. She averaged 11 points and 13 rebounds in two games to earn Big South Freshman of the Week honors on Jan. 29. It was the second time Esenabhalu won the award, also doing so on Nov. 20.
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 (138, 59th in Division I, 55th in all NCAA divisions), points (1,406, 107th in Division I, 194th in all divisions), free throws made (375, 38th in Division I) and free throws attempted (492, 41st in Division I).
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 130-87 (.597), as of Friday.
CRASHIN' THE BOARDS
Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu has grabbed at least eight rebounds per game in seven of the last 13 games, dating to Dec. 22 against Georgia Southern when she collected eight. Esenabhalu is averaging 6.9 boards in that span, with an average of 6.6 in 10 Big South Conference games to rank sixth in the league. She is fifth in offensive (2.7) and tied for 10th in defensive (3.9) rebounds.
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE BENCH
Longwood's non-starters are averaging 19.9 points per game, a figure that is fourth in the Big South and 130th overall in Division I.
Longwood has outscored the opponent bench in seven games this season, including getting a season-high 40 points from its reserves Jan. 27 against Regent.
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 (375), is also eighth in free-throw percentage (76.2) and eighth in points (1,406).
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 12 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 44 times in her career, leading the Lancers to an 19-25 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 138 games and 104 starts, the Seneca, S.C., native is 101-for-343 from 3-point range, good for 29.4 percent.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Adriana Shipp-Davis (20 points, 15 rebounds against Norfolk State) and Otaifo Esenabhalu (16 points, 15 boards) versus Regent) have Longwood's double-doubles this season. Only 16 players in the Big South have recorded a double-double this year.
TRUE ROAD WIN
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.
BIG DAY AGAINST REGENT
Longwood closed its non-conference slate last Saturday with a 103-52 victory over Regent. It marked the most points the Lancers scored since Dec. 12, 2015 in a 100-57 win against North Carolina Wesleyan. LU shot 60.3 percent from the field, setting season highs in rebounds (52), assists (27) and steals (20).
Four players scored in double digits for the third time in four games against the Royals, while all 12 active players scored points.
Longwood tied the school record for points in a quarter, scoring 40 in the fourth. LU also scored 40 in the third period of a 91-59 home win against Charleston Southern Feb. 2, 2022.
SHOOTING TRENDS
The Lancers shot 60.3 percent and limited Regent to 27.8 percent Jan. 27 and are now to 11-5 overall under head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery and 6-5 in 2023-24 when outshooting the opposition. It was the third time the Lancers shot 50 percent or better with Lang-Montgomery at the helm, also doing so against USC Upstate on Feb. 15, 2023 (52.3 percent) and at Presbyterian on Jan. 20 (50 percent).
SHUFFLING THE DECK
Longwood has employed seven different starting lineups in 23 games so far this season. The five-player group of Kiki McIntyre, Anne-Hamilton LeRoy, Janay Turner, Frances Ulysse and Adriana Shipp-Davis started a team-high eight consecutive games from Dec. 31-Jan. 24 are 2-6 together.
Turner has started 22-of-23 games, while LeRoy has 19 and Ulysse 17 starts.
CONTROLLING THE BOARDS
Longwood has played to a 8-5 record when outrebounding its opponent in two seasons under head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. The Lancers are 5-3 when doing so this season with a combined plus-56 rebounding margin in their six victories.
LU SECOND IN SCORING
Longwood is second in the Big South in scoring average at 62.2 points per game, which is 237th in the nation.
20-POINT SCORERS
Janay Turner (career-high 24 points versus Regent, 20 Jan. 17 versus USC Upstate and 22 Nov. 29 at Ohio) has a team-leading three 20-point games for Longwood this season. Malea Brown (career-high 23 points at USC Upstate Wedesday, 20 Nov. 12 versus Chowan) and Anne-Hamilton LeRoy also have multiple 20-point games (22 points at Presbyterian Jan. 20 and 23 versus Georgia Southern Dec. 22).
There have been 67 games in which a player has scored at least 20 points in the Big South from 24 different players.
FREE THROWS WIN BALLGAMES
The Lancers lead the league in free throw attempts (17.87), which is 113th in the country. Longwood is second in the Big South in free throws made per game at 12.26, a figure that is 135th in the nation. The Lancers are fifth in the league in free throw percentage (68.6), which is 242nd nationally.
Individually, Janay Turner ranks fourth in the league in free throws attempted (105, 104th in Division I) and fifth in free throws made (77, 115th in Division I).
LANCERS LEAD LEAGUE IN STEALS
As a team, the Lancers lead the Big South in steals per game (10.9), which is 23rd in the nation.
Junior guard Kiki McIntyre leads the league in both steals (54, 36th in Division I) and steals per game (2.35, 54th in Division I). Fellow junior guard Malea Brown ranks second in the league and 88th nationally in steals at 47. Brown is also second in the Big South in steals per game at 2.04, good for 117th in the nation.
TURNER FROM DOWNTOWN
Janay Turner went 5-for-7 from 3-point range in the Jan. 17 win over USC Upstate, matching her career high for 3-point makes in a game, and is shooting 37.5 percent (36-for-96) from distance on the year.
As a team, the Lancers are fourth in the league in 3-point field goal percentage at 30.2 percent, which is 205th 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 6.2 rebounds per game through 23 games.
Esenabhalu is one of just seven 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, repeating the performance with 15 Jan. 27 against Regent. 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.
