ELON, N.C. — Amor Harris drained a 3-pointer from the left elbow with 21.3 seconds remaining to lift the Longwood women's basketball team to a 67-66 victory over Elon at the Schar Center on Sunday.
With the win, the Lancers' fourth in five games, Longwood improves to 8-4 on the year. It is the fastest LU has secured an eighth win in a season in its Division I history.
"We had drawn up something that we wanted to run and I think we got a shot off and we were able to get the offensive rebound [by Jasmine Peaks]," said Longwood head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. "That play was big."
Peaks skied for the rebound of her own shot and found Harris with a one-handed bullet pass. The junior guard set her feet and knocked her second trey of the game through.
Longwood stiffened on the defensive end, forcing a missed jumper from Ashlee Shaw, who got her own rebound. Lanae' Corbett then missed a pair of putback attempts in succession and Frances Ulysse cleared the boards as time expired to secure the win.
"What a battle on the road," Lang-Montgomery said. "We fought and got a key stop when we needed it."
Harris scored a game-high 18 points on 8-for-17 shooting, while Jaci Bolden added 13 and JaMya Robinson contributed 10 for the Lancers to win for the first time on the road this season.
The Phoenix got off to a fast start, jumping out to a 12-2 lead in the first three minutes, forcing a Longwood timeout. Ulysse canned her first 3-pointer of the season, cutting the deficit to 14-5 and the Lancers rallied to within 14-11 on a Jesstynie Scott steal and Robinson layup at the 4:36 mark of the period.
Elon, though, responded with an 11-6 spurt to close the frame up, 27-19. The host hit 12-of-16 shots from the field in the first quarter.
The Lancers turned the tables in the second, using a 15-1 run in the middle of it, taking their first lead of the day at 31-30 on two Bolden free throws with 4:12 before halftime.
The Lancers forced Elon to misfire on its first 11 shot attempts from the floor in the period as Longwood took a 40-37 lead into the locker room on the strength of a 21-point quarter.
Ulysse knocked down one of two free throws to give her team its largest lead of the game at 43-37 two minutes into the second half. Corbett knotted things at 47-all with 1:50 remaining in the period with a bucket in the paint before Otaifo Esenabhalu notched a free throw to wrest the lead back heading to the fourth.
The lead changed hands no fewer than seven times in the final quarter with neither team opening an advantage bigger than four points.
Peaks stripped Laila Anderson of the ball with 1:20 remaining and found Harris for a hoop to give Longwood a 64-63 lead with 1:15 to play. Shaw then connected a 3 from the top of the key out of a timeout with 43 seconds left, setting the stage for the Harris winner.
Longwood finished the day 47.6 percent from the field, got 21 points off of 21 Elon turnovers, while also collecting 15 steals.
The Phoenix, which received 17 points from Corbett and 14 by Shaw won the outrebounded LU, 38-31.
Longwood returns home to face UNCW next Sunday at 2 p.m., in the final game before the holidays.
