FARMVILLE, Va. – In a game of runs, Longwood men's basketball was on the wrong end of one in the final minutes against UNC Asheville.
 
The two teams traded haymakers all night in a battle befitting the stage on ESPNU before an enthusiastic crowd at the Joan Perry Brock Center. But Asheville (12-13, 6-5 Big South) outscored the Lancers (13-14, 5-7 Big South) 9-3 in the final 1:36 of the game to win 79-74.
 
That capped a thrilling game that saw the lead change hands 11 times while being tied four times.
 
Despite 24 points apiece for Asheville's Toyaz Solomon and Justin Wright, along with 22 for Kameron Taylor—and a potential knockout blow early in the second half—Longwood muscled back into the game behind a season-best 20 points from Alphonzo Billups III.
 
"I thought he was aggressive," said Longwood Head Coach Ronnie Thomas about the success Billups had on the night. "He let the shots come to him, and he took them with confidence. He didn't do anything abnormal for him. He just played with confidence and aggressiveness, and he's got to continue that.
 
Billups led the Lancer bench mob that rallied and dragged the Lancers back into the game after a knockout blow by Asheville to start the second half.
 
The visitors blitzed Longwood by hitting eight straight shots and using a 15-0 run to build a 17-point lead with 16:01 to go.
 
"For some reason, we came out the first four minutes really flat and trying to see how the game was going to go, and when that happens, you just sort of float your way through, try to find your way," Thomas said. "You've got another team out there punching, and things can go opposite for you. And it did. It was a perfect strike. Four for four from three, three layups. It was a little bit of a perfect storm from them while we had our worst four minutes. It's tough because you recover back from it, you put yourself in the game, you take two different leads under two minutes, and you just can't find a way to win in the end."
 
But Billups, who had 12 of his 20 points after halftime, put home a layup off a find from Redd Thompson Jr., who had 10 points and three assists on the night, to stem the tide.
 
Then the Lancer defense kicked in. Longwood held Asheville scoreless for more than eight minutes and without a made field goal for 10, and the decibel level kept climbing as the Lancers scratched and clawed back into the game. Thompson had seven of his 10 points in the run for Longwood.
 
Wright finally hit a tough three for Asheville with 5:58 to go, but the game stayed nip and tuck from there. Elijah Tucker and Johan Nziemi did damage on the interior for Longwood, but Solomon and Taylor had the answers for Asheville. Tucker finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season, and Nziemi added 11 points and seven boards for Longwood.
 
The lead seesawed back and forth as the clock dwindled. Billups drilled his final shot of the night, a triple, to give Longwood a 71-70 lead with 2:06 to go, but Wright answered with an and-one to retake the lead for good for Asheville.
 
"The message [after the game] was that the hard thing about trying to be consistent is being consistent when it's not going your way," Thomas said. "But the consistent people stay the course, keep punching, keep going. They don't change because they are not getting the result. If we stay there, the result is going to come in our favor. There's been some hard ones. We're part of the issue, right, but back-to-back games where we had a lead in the last two minutes…there's been multiple conference games in the last minute where we've had leads, and then we lose by three, four, five points. The minute you try to go off course and do something different is when you find yourself in trouble. So I just told them we've got a quick turnaround, and it's really important that the reason why we responded [tonight] is because we're staying true to the message and staying true to who we're going to be. If we do that, it's going to flip for us. I truly believe that."
 
Longwood returns to the hardwood on Saturday when the team hosts USC Upstate. Tip is set for 3 p.m., and the game will air on ESPN+. It is
 
#GoWood #HorsePower