FARMVILLE, Va. -- The
Longwood women's basketball team is back home Friday to start a two-game homestand
, welcoming Bluefield for an 8 p.m., tip for Homecoming and Alumni Weekend.
STORYLINES
▪ The Lancers rallied at Navy Wednesday with a 33-point fourth quarter, shaving a 27-point deficit to as few as five. It marked the third consecutive game Longwood posted at least 30 points in a quarter. Longwood has scored 30 in a single period four times this year.
▪ Junior Otaifo Esenabhalu posted her ninth career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds against the Midshipmen. She is one of four players in the Big South this season to record one and ranks 42nd in the NCAA in the category through games of Nov. 12.
▪ Freshman Kayla Washington provided a lift off the bench for the Lancers Wednesday, hitting three 3-pointers in the second half, including a pair in the fourth-quarter run.
▪ Amor Harris and Jasmine Peaks joined Esenabhalu in double figures with 10 points apiece. Peaks added four rebounds and four assists while Malea Brown scored eight and led all players with five assists and four steals.
▪ 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.
▪ Longwood ranks in the top 10 in the NCAA in six categories, including steals per game (third, 20), turnovers forced per game (seventh, 30.3), assists per game (seventh, 23), turnover margin (eighth, plus-16.3), free throw percentage (ninth, 84.1) and bench scoring (ninth, 43.3).
SCOUTING THE RAMS
Bluefield, an NAIA school, has started 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference. The Rams are coming off of a 122-39 loss at Pikeville on Wednesday.
Bluefield averages just 43.3 points per game while surrendering 94. The Rams shooting 33.3 percent from the field and 20.5 percent from 3-point range.
Elle Gunter leads the team, averaging 8.0 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. The Rams are coached by Jake Wright in his second season at the school.
Friday's game is the first between Longwood and Bluefield in women's basketball action.
LAST TIME OUT
Longwood gave Navy all it could handle down the stretch Wednesday, falling 74-66. The Lancers trailed by 27 points one minute into the fourth quarter and rallied to cut the deficit to five with seconds remaining.
Navy's Zanai Barnett-Gay scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to stake the Midshipmen to a big lead before the Lancers hit on 11-of-21 shots in the final 10 minutes to make it a game.
Longwood posted advantages in points off turnovers (18-6), in the paint (42-38) and in bench scoring (26-17).
FIRST TIME IN A WHILE
Longwood never trailed in an 80-42 win over Western Kentucky last Saturday. The victory was Longwood's first against a current Conference USA foe since winning 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.
WINNING THE FIRST TWO
The Lancers started 2-0 this season for the first time since 2006-07 when they beat American and Norfolk State under head coach Pamela Bass.
TURNING 'EM OVER
Longwood forced 30 turnovers against Western Kentucky, a number it reached for the 11th time in the last two seasons under Erika Lang-Montgomery and staff.
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 last 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.
ELITE COMPANY
In the changing landscape of college athletics where offseason player movement has become the norm, the Lancers did not lose a single player to the transfer portal this summer.
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.
DIPPING INTO THE PORTAL
Longwood grabbed a pair of players with previous Division I experience from the transfer portal to round out the 2025-26 roster.
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.
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.
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 19 double-digit rebound games in her career and the Lancers have gone 12-7 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 67 games at Longwood, Brown, who was selected to the preseason all-Big South second team this season, has 154 career steals.
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.
LANCERS SECOND IN BIG SOUTH POLL
Longwood was picked second in the 2025-26 Big South preseason poll, announced at the conference media day in Johnson City, Tenn., on Oct. 15. The Lancers earned 69 points in the balloting with one first-place vote to finish behind just High Point (77 points and six first place nods. Radford was picked third with 67 points and one first-place vote. The final vote for the top spot went to UNC Asheville, which was ninth overall with 22 total points.
It marks the first time in program history that the Lancers have earned a first-place vote in the Big South poll.
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.
