CHARLESTON, S.C. -- On a three-game winning streak, the Longwood women's basketball team travels to Charleston Southern Saturday at 2 p.m., for a game featuring a pair of teams that won their Big South openers on Thursday.
STORYLINES
â–ª On a three-game winning streak, Longwood travels to Charleston Southern for a game featuring a pair of teams that won their Big South openers Thursday.
â–ª Longwood swept the Buccaneers last season, winning, 66-57, on the road Jan. 6 and 63-56 at home Feb. 3. The Lancers lead the all-time series, 16-12, including 6-5 in Charleston.
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Kiki McIntyre posted a career-high 10 steals in the Lancers' 68-56 win over Presbyterian Thursday, which is tied for the second most in Division I women's basketball this season. She was just one steal from tying the Longwood single-game record of 11, set by Brenda Fettrow on Dec. 6, 1987 against William & Mary. McIntyre leads the country in total steals (58) and is second in steals per game (3.87). As a team, the Lancers lead the NCAA in steals per game, averaging 15.5 swipes per game.
â–ª Longwood forced Presbyterian into 30 turnovers on Thursday, marking the sixth time this season the Lancers have caused that many. Longwood tallied 33 points off the miscues and has outscored the opposition, 398-228, in points off turnovers in the 15 games this year.
â–ª Longwood is creating 26.8 turnovers per game this season, which is fourth best in the NCAA as of games played through Jan. 2. The Lancers have also forced the most total turnovers (402) of any team in the country. Further, Longwood has caused more turnovers than the opposition in 12-of-15 games this season, going 9-3 in those contests. Longwood also leads the Big South in turnover margin at plus-7.47, which is 19th in Division I.
SCOUTING THE BUCCANEERS
Charleston Southern erased a 14-point Gardner-Webb lead in the fourth quarter to take its Big South opener, 67-65, Thursday. CSU improved to 5-9 overall with the victory, winning for the second time in three games.
Catherine Alben is second in the league in scoring at 13.9 points per game, while Madison Adamson (5.6) and Saniya Jones (5.1) lead the Bucs in rebounds per game.
LAST TIME OUT
Longwood shot 59 percent in the second half, knocking down 9-of-10 shots spanning the third and fourth quarters, to beat Presbyterian, 68-56, Thursday.
Mariah Wilson scored a team-best 15 points on 6-for-8 shooting, adding six rebounds, as the Lancers won their third consecutive game. Longwood went 19-of-32 from the floor after halftime, recovering from a sluggish start in which it was limited to just 10 makes and 32 percent in the first half.
The Lancers pulled away in the third quarter, outscoring Presbyterian, 23-16, in the period, while shooting a blistering 11-of-17 (64.7 percent), breaking open a game that featured eight tie scores and five lead changes.
Otaifo Esenabhalu collected her fifth double-double of the season and seventh of her career with 12 points and 11 rebounds, including eight points and five boards in the second half.
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.
NON-CON SUCCESS
Longwood went 9-5 in regular-season non-conference action. It marked the best out-of-conference record for LU since Shirley Duncan's 1987-88 Lancers were 10-9 outside of Mason-Dixon Conference play. That team finished 14-13 overall.
WINNING THE BIG SOUTH OPENER
The Lancers beat Presbyterian, 68-56, on Thursday, winning for just the fifth time in the first game of Big South Conference play since joining the conference for the 2012-13 season.
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 1,016 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.
The Lancers are tied with NSU and George Mason for the most wins in the state with 21 through games of Jan. 2.
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 20th in the NCAA in total rebounds with 135. She is also 29th in offensive rebounds per game at 3.9 and 56th in boards per game at 9.0. She leads the Big South in all three categories.
Esenabhalu has also posted a league-leading eight double-figure rebounding games, including five in the last nine 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 15 times under
Erika Lang-Montgomery. The Lancers are 13-2 in those contests. Longwood is averaging 15.5 steals per game this year, which is currently leads the NCAA.
Kiki McInytre is also tops in the nation in total steals with 58,
Mariah Wilson is second in the Big South and eighth in the country with 45 steals and
Malea Brown is third in the league and 31st nationally with 37 steals. McIntyre is second in the country in steals per game at 3.87.
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 13 of the first 15 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 13 of the 15 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 33.2 bench points per game in 2024-25, good for 10th 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 has five double-doubles on the season and seven in her career. The sophomore from Valdosta, Ga., is currently 36th in country in the category this season while leading the Big South Conference.
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.
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