FARMVILLE, Va. — The Longwood women's basketball team put a scare into Troy Wednesday morning at the Joan Perry Brock Center in front of 1,649 fans, mostly school children, for Education Day.
The Lancers built a 23-point first-half lead on the strength of 53 percent shooting and 10 made 3-pointers, but the Trojans, of the Sun Belt Conference, who are ranked No. 4 in the latest CollegeInsider Mid-Major Top 25 Poll, caught fire after halftime, coming all the way back to squeak out a 86-83 victory and improve to 8-1 on the season.
"That was kind of the game that we expected," said Longwood head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. "We knew we were playing a team that was very similar in our style of play, and we knew that if we could shoot the ball well that we were going to be be in the game with them."
Junior guard Amor Harris scored a career-high 26 points, including 20 in the first half with four triples, and graduate student guard Malea Brown added a double-double of 17 points and career-best 12 rebounds to lead the Lancers (6-4).
Troy closed the third quarter with an 18-4 run over the final four minutes to creep within 66-65 and then shot nearly 59 percent in the fourth quarter and didn't look back.
Fortuna Ngnawo gave the Trojans their first lead of the day with a turnaround jumper in the paint on the first possession of the period. Troy proceeded to grow the edge to as many as eight at 80-72 with 6:05 to play with an Ngnawo layup before Longwood rallied.
Jasmine Peaks, who scored 10 for the Lancers, poured in five consecutive on a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer, cutting the deficit to just three at 80-77 with 3:22 to play. Otaifo Esenabhalu split a pair at the line a minute later to make it a two-point game, but baskets by Ngnawo and Zay Dyer pushed the Trojans' lead to 86-81 with 1:09 on the clock.
Harris drained two from the line with 54 seconds left and Longwood got a defensive stop to give itself a final chance, however, the Lancers were unable to get a shot off with five seconds remaining as Troy claimed the win.
"I love the response," Lang-Montgomery said of comeback attempt. "That was what I challenged them with. I got caught in a sticky situation where I had one timeout and I was kind of unsure when I wanted to use it. So I'm glad that I did held on because we made it a ball game. We didn't go away. We responded to their punches, to their run, and, uh, challenged them down the stretch."
The Lancers couldn't miss in the first half, jetting to a 22-11 advantage through the first quarter and used a 29-point second frame to lead 51-36 at the break, going 18-of-34 from the floor and 10-for-13 from distance. Longwood outrebounded Troy, 26-17, in the half and limited the visitor to 39 percent, including 22 percent in the opening 10 minutes.
"I thought we did a great job of moving the ball, Lang-Montgomery said of the Lancers in the first half. "We were getting some inside looks and we found the right people that had the hot hand, Malea and Amor were on fire that first half, and we've got find a way to duplicate that in the second half."
Troy placed four players in double figures, led by Ngnawo with 19 points to go with 10 rebounds.
Longwood finished the day 12-for-22 from long range and 27-of-65 from the floor overall.
Longwood returns to action Sunday at 1 p.m., playing UNC Pembroke on ESPN+.
