▪ Jesstynie Scott earned Big South Freshman of the Week Monday after coming off the bench to average 11.5 points, 6.0 steals and 5.5 rebounds per game in her first collegiate action as Longwood beat Randolph and WKU.

▪ The wire-to-wire, 80-42, win over the Hilltoppers Saturday was Longwood's first against a current Conference USA foe since winning at against Jacksonville State, 69-64, at home on Jan. 11, 2005. It was also the first CUSA victory for a Big South South school since Radford topped Liberty on Dec. 13, 2023.

▪ Longwood forced 30 turnovers against WKU, a number it reached for the 11th time in two seasons.

▪ Navy leads the all-time series with Longwood, 10-2. The Midshipmen have won the last four games between the two, including last season's meeting at the Joan Perry Brock Center, which Navy claimed, 75-61.

▪ Through the first two games, the Lancers rank in the top five in the NCAA in five categories as a team. Those are: turnovers forced per game (second, 36.0), steals per game (third, 24.0), 3-point field goals defense (fourth, 11.1 percent), turnover margin (fourth, plus-20.5) and bench points per game (fourth, 52.0).

SCOUTING THE MIDSHIPMEN
Navy beat Delaware, 68-61, on the road to open the season Friday. Zanai Barnett-Gay compiled a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Zoe Mesuch added 16 points of her own to lead Navy.

The Mids went 19-12 overall and 11-7 in the Patriot League a season ago, advancing to the WNIT. Navy was picked to win the PL in 2025-26 with Barnett-Gay selected at Preseason Player and Defensive Player of the Year in the conference. The Mids are one of just nine teams in the country to add five or more wins to their total in back-to-back seasons.

LAST TIME OUT
Longwood never trailed in a 80-42 win over WKU Saturday at the Joan Perry Brock Center. Longwood placed four players in double figures, received offensive contributions from eight different players and grabbed at least 50 rebounds for the second consecutive game. Amor Harris led all players with 16 points, Frances Ulysse had 14, Malea Brown 12 and Jesstynie Scott 10.

LAST TIME AGAINST NAVY
Otaifo Esenanhalu came off the bench to notch a third double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds, but Navy earned a 75-61 win in the last meeting between the teams in Nov. 23, 2024 in Farmville. Zanai Barnett-Gay scored a game-best 22 points and 13 boards for Navy, which led by 11 at halftime and staved off a late Lancers' comeback.

WHAT'S AT STAKE
A win at Navy on Wednesday would extend the Lancers' season-opening win streak to three games. It would be just the 10th time since the 1970-71 season Longwood started a season 3-0.

THE REAL MCCOY
With head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery on leave to attend services for a death in her family, assistant coach Landis F. McCoy stepped in as acting head coach, helping the Lancers to a season-opening 121-35 win over Randolph, his first as a Division I head coach.

Lang-Montgomery returned to the sidelines for Saturday's win over Western Kentucky.

PACKING 'EM IN
Longwood led the Big South in attendance in 2024-25, averaging 1,183 fans per game over 15 home dates. 

A total of 17,750 people came through the turnstiles at the Joan Perry Brock Center for the season, good for 148th most nationally across Division I women's basketball.

WELCOME TO PARADISE
Longwood will spend the Thanksgiving holiday at the 2025 Puerto Rico Clasico in San Juan, Puerto Rico, playing Buffalo and Stephen F. Austin on Nov. 27 and 29, respectively. 

Buffalo finished 30-7 overall last season, winning the postseason WNIT. Stephen F. Austin went 29-6, winning the Southland Conference title to advance to the NCAA tournament. Both teams are receiving votes in the preseason mid-major top-25 poll with SFA getting 63 votes and Buffalo picking up nine. 

NON-CON SUCCESS A YEAR AGO
Longwood went 9-5 in regular-season non-conference action in 2024-25. It marked the best out-of-conference record for the Lancers since Shirley Duncan's 1987-88 squad was 10-9 outside of Mason-Dixon Conference play. That team finished 14-13 overall.

HALL TO THE HALL
Former Longwood great Nikki Hall-Atkinson was announced as one of six part of the Longwood Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2025 on Oct. 7.

Hall-Atkinson played for four seasons and has her jersey number retired, as well. She led Longwood to a pair of CVAC titles and three trips to the Division II NCAA tournament. She also earned All-America honorable mention twice.

As a senior, she was the CVAC Player of the Year in 1997, and she was named to the CVAC All-Time Team.

Hall-Atkinson finished her career with 1,499 career points which is currently fifth all-time at Longwood.

Hall-Atkinson took over on the bench for Shirley Duncan during the 2005-06 season.

She is also slated to call select games with Sam Hovan on ESPN+ this season.

SUCCESS AT HOME
Head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery helped the Lancers to a 10-5 record at the Joan Perry Brock Center in 2024-25. It was Longwood's best record at home since the 2020-21 Lancers went 11-3 at Willett Hall under Rebecca Tillett and were selected to compete in the Women's Basketball Invitational after finishing 14-11 overall.

The Lancers are set to play another 15 games at home this season, including seven in non-conference action. Among those, Longwood welcomes Western Kentucky of the Sun Belt Conference Nov. 8, George Washington Nov. 17 and Troy Dec. 3. The Trojans are ranked No. 21 in the preseason mid-major top 25 poll.

LOCKED IN THROUGH 2030-31
Following the Lancers' Big South championship game appearance, trip to the postseason WNIT and 22-win season, head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery signed a six-year contract extension that will keep her in Farmville through the 2030-31 season. 

Lang-Montgomery and staff coached the Big South Defensive Player of the Year in Kiki McIntyre, who set the Longwood and Big South single-season record for steals (130), and led one of the most smothering defensive units in the country, which forced 27.47 turnovers per game, good for second in the NCAA. All that helped Longwood to a 13-win improvement from 2023-24.

In fact, Longwood is one of just 19 schools in all of Division I women's basketball to boast of that this year, joining the likes of Power 4 schools Nebraska, Oregon, Syracuse and Washington. 

The others are: Air Force, Belmont, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Creighton, Dartmouth, Davidson, Drexel, Green Bay, Harvard, Marquette, Sam Houston and Princeton.

Jasmine Peaks, a 5-foot-5 redshirt senior guard from Palm Bay, Fla., played last season at Wichita State, appearing in 27 games for the Shockers. She averaged 2.8 points and 1.7 assists per game. Alary Bell, a 6-2 redshirt sophomore forward from Chester, Va., played two seasons at St. Francis (Pa.), playing 20 games for the Red Flash last season. Bell averaged 4.4 points and 3.8 rebounds.

WALKING REBOUND
Junior forward Otaifo Esenabhalu enters her third season with the Lancers tied for 10th all-time in Longwood women's basketball history in career rebounding average at 7.6 boards per game. Esenabhalu is currently tied with Salene Green, who played 98 games at Longwood from 1988-92.

Esenabhalu has 18 double-digit rebound games in her career and the Lancers have gone 12-6 in those contests.

MALEA STEALS
Back for her third season in Farmville, graduate student guard Malea Brown posted 83 steals in 2024-25, representing the eighth-most steals in a single season in Longwood history. 

In 66 games at Longwood, Brown, who was selected to the preseason all-Big South second team this season, has 150 career steals.
 

SMARTY PANTS
One of the cornerstones of the Longwood women's basketball program under head Erika Lang-Montgomery is academic success and 2024-25 was no different. 

Eleven of the 13 players on last year's roster earned a spot of the Big South Presidential Honor Roll by registering a 3.0 GPA or better for the academic year. Earning the honor were: Montgomery Bedford, Jaci Bolden, Lili Booker, Olivia Bowes, Malea Brown, Otaifo Esenabhalu, Amor Harris, Kiki McIntyre, JaMya Robinson, Nalani Simmons and Frances Ulysse.