HIGH POINT, N.C. — The Longwood women's basketball team stormed all the way back from a 14-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to stun High Point, 75-73 in overtime, at the Quebein Center on Wednesday.
The victory pulls the Lancers (18-6, 9-2 Big South) to within a half game of High Point (21-4, 10-2), which lost for the second consecutive outing.
"I am incredibly proud of the grit and determination that we found tonight," Longwood head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery said of the Lancers, who won for the second straight game at the Qubein Center. "There was a lot of adversity that we faced throughout that game. We were down 14 a couple times. Jaci [Bolden], who's having a great game, she fouls out, but we found a way.
"I thought JaMya [Robinson] came in, got a big stop and a big offensive rebound, got fouled, hit two big free throws, and then Jasmine Peaks down the stretch, some clutch free throws to seal the deal," Lang-Montgomery said. "It was a total team effort tonight."
Trailing, 51-37, as the fourth quarter began, Longwood used a 10-0 run over the first three and a half minutes of the period to cut the HPU lead to 51-47 on a Malea Brown 3-pointer. The host responded to regain a 10-point edge in the next two-plus minutes as Chana Paxixe hit a layup in transition to make it 61-51 with 4:20 play, but the Lancers didn't quit.
An old-fashioned three-point play from Peaks with four minutes remaining in regulation set off a 12-2 run that helped Longwood knot the game at 63-all on a Frances Ulysse offensive rebound and putback with just 6.7 seconds on the clock.
From there, Jesstynie Scott blocked an Aaliyah Collins layup and Anna Häger's shot at the horn was off, sending Longwood to its second extra session in three games.
High Point led, 73-69, with less than two minutes left in overtime when Ulysse hit a layup off of a Scott assist with 1:34 remaining. Robinson then collected the rebound of a Peaks miss and took a foul from Paxixe. The senior from Muskegon, Mich., calmly stepped to line and knocked down both free throws to pull her team even again at 73-73 with 47 seconds left.
After a High Point timeout, Scott stole Macy Spencer's pass to Häger on the interior and Peaks was fouled on a drive with 4.3 ticks left. She, in turn, drained her foul shots for the lead.
The Lancers got a stop at the other end as Ulysse drew a charge on a Collins runner at the buzzer to seal the win.
Ulysse led Longwood with 16 points and a game-high-tying 13 rebounds and Otaifo Esenabhalu added 11 points and another 13 boards. It marked the third time this season both players secured double-doubles in the same game with two of them coming in the last three contests.
The Lancers outscored High Point 26-12 in the fourth quarter and 12-10 in overtime, while carrying a 50-37 edge in rebounds on the night
Longwood put at least five players in double figures for the eighth time this season as Brown (13), Peaks (12) and Bolden (11) were the others.
Next, Longwood remains on the road for a date with Winthrop Saturday at 2 p.m., on ESPN+.
"Every game matters," Lang-Montgomery said. "We just keep taking it one game at a time. [We'll] just enjoy this, the bus ride home, and then we start getting ready for Winthrop on Saturday."
