FARMVILLE, Va. — Winner of two consecutive games and five of its last six, the Longwood women's basketball team returns to the Joan Perry Brock Center Thursday after three games away to host Presbyterian in the Big South Conference opener for both teams at 2 p.m.

STORYLINES
▪ Longwood is shooting for its fifth all-time victory to begin Big South play. The Lancers last won their first league game of the season on Dec. 29, 2021 at North Carolina A&T by a 76-45 count.
▪ Thursday's game marks the 31st all-time contest between Longwood and Presbyterian. The Blue Hose lead the series, 18-12, overall and are 10-7 in Farmville. Presbyterian has won the last three games. Longwood's last victory, 70-68, at home in Willett Hall came on Jan. 21, 2023.
▪ Sitting with a league-best 9-5 record entering Big South action, the Lancers have posted their most non-conference victories since Shirley Duncan's 1987-88 team was 10-9 out of Mason-Dixon Conference play, finishing the season 14-13 overall.
▪ Longwood is creating 26.57 turnovers per game this season, which is fourth best in the NCAA as of games played through Dec. 31. The Lancers have also forced the most total turnovers (372) of any team in the country. Further, Longwood has caused more turnovers than the opposition in 11-of-14 games this season, going 8-3 in those contests. Longwood also leads the Big South in turnover margin at plus-7.21, which is 21st in Division I.
▪ First-year Presbyterian head coach Tiffany Sardin was as assistant coach under Rebecca Tillett from 2018-20.

SCOUTING THE BLUE HOSE
Presbyterian is 2-11 on the season and is coming off of a 63-43 New Year's Eve win over Division II Newberry to stop a three-game losing streak. Kishyah Anderson (20 points, 10 rebounds) and Paige Kindseth (17 points, 11 boards) each tallied double-doubles in the victory. Anderson leads PC in scoring at 12.5 points per game while Kindseth is the team's top rebounder, averaging 7.7 boards per game. The Blue Hose were picked to finish eighth in the in Big South preseason poll and garnered a first-place vote.

LAST TIME OUT
Longwood shot 53 percent from the floor and put five players in double figures for a 84-68 victory at UNCW Sunday.

Amor Harris matched her career high with 23 points on 10-for-14 shooting, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range, to lead all players, while Kiki McIntyre added 16 points, six rebounds and six assists. Needing just seven points for 1,000 in her career, the graduate guard from Boston reached the milestone on a layup at the 4:42 mark of the second quarter.

Longwood used a 9-0 run over 1:42 in the first quarter to erase a brief Seahawks' 5-4 lead, getting five points from Malea Brown in the stretch, and never never trailed again. The Lancers led 20-13 after the first quarter, 51-39 at halftime and 71-48 after three periods.

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 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Amor Harris was named Big South Player of the Week Dec. 10 after earning MVP in the Shirley Duncan Classic. Harris averaged 17 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. Her 24 field goals and 51 points in the tournament were the second and 10th most, respectively, in the NCAA for the week ending Dec. 9.

Harris is the second LU player this season to claim weekly honors, joining Frances Ulysse, who was named Co-Big South Player of the Week 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 Towson, Wilson played three minutes in an 83-72 Tigers' victory.

Wilson scored a career-high 18 points at Florida Dec. 15, adding a career-best eight steals at Webber International Dec. 18.

LUCKY 7
The Lancers played half of their 14 non-conference games in 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.

Longwood finished regular-season non-conference play 9-5, including going 5-2 at home.

FIVE IN DOUBLE FIGURES
Longwood has had five players score double figures in two separate games this season. The Lancers first accoplished the feat in a 80-66 win at Queens on Nov. 18 and did it again at UNCW on Sunday, an 84-68 victory.

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 Kiki McInytre reached 1,000 career points Sunday's win at UNCW with a layup at the 4:42 mark in the second quarter. She now has 1,009 in her time at Longwood (2023-25) and Division II St. Leo  (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.

Norfolk State and George Mason lead the state at 21 wins apiece. The Lancers are third with 20.

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 11-13 under Lang-Montgomery when they make at least five 3-pointers in a game.

REBOUNDING MACHINE
Sophomore Otaifo Esenabhalu is currently 26th in the NCAA in offensive rebounds per game at 4.0 and 29th in total rebounds with 124. She is 67th in rebounds per game at 8.9. Esenabhalu leads the Big South in all three categories.

She has also posted a league-leading seven double-figure rebounding games, including four in the last eight contests.

BAND OF THIEVES
Longwood made a season-high 25 steals in its 105-38 victory over Webber International Dec. 18. The Lancers have now secured at least 15 steals in a game 14 times under Erika Lang-Montgomery. The Lancers are 12-2 in those contests. Longwood is averaging 15.4 steals per game this year, which is currently tied for first in the NCAA with the College of Charleston.

Kiki McInytre is third in the nation in total steals with 48, Mariah Wilson is second in the Big South and seventh in the country with 44 steals and Malea Brown is third in the league and 30th nationally with 35 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 12 of the first 14 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 12 of the 14 games this season.

The Lancers posted an overwhelming 62-8 edge from its reserves – the largest margin of the season – as Longwood drubbed Webber International, 105-38 on Dec. 18.

Longwood is averaging 34 bench points per game in 2024-25, good for ninth in NCAA Division I and first 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.

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.