BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. — Four players finished in double figures as the Longwood women's basketball team rallied for a 76-70 road win over Gardner-Webb at Paul Porter Arena on Wednesday.
The Lancers finally got enough separation hitting four of the last five shots of the night while getting two key steals from senior JaMya Robinson with less than 90 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
"Road wins are not always pretty, but it's finding a way," said Longwood head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. "And when we were gritty, resilient enough to find it. Big, big fourth quarter, our defense got us some stops, had some big plays that went in our favor. And we were able to get to the free-throw line, as well.
"[JaMya] made a big play in the fourth quarter," Lang-Montgomery continued. I think she turned over, but also back on defense, got the stop, secured the rebound, so made up for it. So definitely plays like that were necessary and she came up with a big one for us in that moment."
In a game that featured no fewer than 12 tie scores and 12 lead changes, the Lancers (15-6, 6-2 Big South) were 53.8 percent from the floor in the fourth quarter, connecting on 7-of-13 shots after shooting just 33.3 percent in the middle two frames combined.
Amor Harris led Longwood with 16 points, including three 3-pointers, while Otaifo Esenabhalu picked up her 10th double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds, helping the Lancers to a 40-29 advantage on the boards, in part, due to collecting nine on the offensive glass.
Jasmine Peaks scored 13 points with another three triples and Frances Ulysse notched 13 points of her own with five rebounds. Finally, Malea Brown had a strong all-around game with five points, a career-high 10 assists and six steals.
"We moved the ball," Lang-Montgomery said. "Twenty assists, that's a great night for us. I thought Malea was huge with her finding her teammates in the right position.
"But I want to give them a lot of credit," Lang-Montgomery said of the Runnin' Bulldogs. "They played well. They forced us into bad decisions and they fought and they battled. … And they shot the ball extremely well from three tonight."
Gardner-Webb (6-16, 3-5) received a game-best 17 points from Anaya Harris and 15 more from Amina Gray, who drained four of her team's 10 treys on the night, the second most Longwood surrendered in a game this season.
Neither team held a lead larger than seven points the entire night with game tied 19-19 after the first quarter while Gardner-Webb held 32-31 and 52-51 advantages after the second and third periods, respectively.
Longwood is back in action next Wednesday, hosting Radford at the Joan Perry Brock Center. Tip time is 7 p.m.
"We will use this week to give our bodies some rest and work on ourselves to be ready for second round of conference play," Lang-Montgomery said.
