FARMVILLE, Va. – In their first home game in two weeks, Longwood scored early and often and put away Pfeiffer 101-55 on Wednesday night at the Joan Perry Brock Center.
 
Five Lancers (5-5) scored in double figures in the win, with Elijah Tucker soaring for a variety of dunks while leading the way with a career-high 24 points.

"Just believing in myself and my teammates," Tucker said about his career night. "We've been talking about that. It's not about you yourself. It's not about me. It's about the team and how we got the dub. I'm grateful that we were able to do that."

"I think he stuck to his strengths," said Longwood Head Coach Ronnie Thomas about Tucker. "I think he did a really good job in and out of ball screens and being able to execute and finish on the rim and making good decisions off of that. I also think he got himself going with two offensive rebounds in the first half and some putback dunks. He's an energized player and wears his heart on his sleeve, and sometimes I have to grab him and hold him tight. I think those things give him a lot of energy, and he gives the team a lot of energy and the arena a lot of energy."
 
Emanuel Richards chipped in 17 points and six rebounds, and Jacoi Hutchinson added 15 points. Alphonzo Billups III filled a variety of roles with 14 points, five boards, a team-best six assists and one steal and one block. Redd Thompson Jr. added 12 points and five assists as well.

"I think it puts everybody in the game," Tucker said after five Lancers scored in double figures for the fourth time this season. "Everybody feels it. Running up and down the court, not touching the ball, you're not going to feel like you are doing much. But having the ball in your hands, moving it, and making the right plays, everybody feels like they are involved. That's kind of what we did tonight."

"We have an equal opportunity offense, and I think it is important for the ball to continue to pop and change sides of the floor," Thomas said. "I think that was an emphasis for us tonight. We talked about it before the game. We'll go back and look at the film, but when the ball can touch different sides of the floor multiple times, I think a lot of good things happen for us. The defense starts to open up some. I think that will be important as we go up to Morgan State this weekend."
 
For Pfeiffer, Justin Gaten had a team-best 15 points while Doug Smith had 13 points.
 
Longwood never trailed behind an offense that dominated the interior. Tucker went 12-14 from the floor, and half of his baskets were dunks. The Lancers shot better than 65 percent for the game while scoring 72 points in the paint.
 
Meanwhile, the defense held Pfeiffer to 34 percent shooting from the floor. Elijah Kelly, making his third straight start as a freshman, blocked four shots.

"Elijah Kelly is just getting better and better and better," Thomas said of the freshman. "I told the guys he's playing the best basketball on our team. Not because it's points or the final product. He's just doing all the little things right. He's going to be an important piece for us as we're dealing with some of the injury bug. I think we had 10 or 11 guys out of our 15 suited up. Elijah Kelly stepped up a lot and he's going to be someone gaining a lot of experience in the non-conference that is going to pay dividends for us when we get into Big South play."
 
The Lancers jumped out to an early 8-0 lead and extended the lead to double figures less than three minutes in. Longwood never looked back and extended the lead to more than 20 midway through the half.
 
Tucker scored 18 of his 24 in the opening 20 minutes, and Hutchinson joined him in double figures with 13 of his 15 in the same time frame. It was the 10^th straight game that Hutchinson has reached double figures.

"Today was just the next step," Thomas said. "Obviously I don't think we like where we were coming in, but the thing about life is that it's easy to feel sorry for yourself. It's easy to point out a problem. I told the guys, there's a lot of problem spotters in the world. We need more problem solvers. They're going to be problem solvers, and we're going to be problem solvers. We're trying to figure out what those problems are and dissecting them, and then we're going to go about solving those and engineering solutions to fix those problems. I like what their mindset is. They're coming in to practice still hungry, and our confidence and effort has not been altered in any way."
 
The Lancers return to the road with a trip to Morgan State on Saturday. Tip is set for 4 p.m., and the game will air on ESPN+.
 
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