Game 30 • 2026 Air Force Reserve Big South Championship • No. 3 Longwood (20-9) vs No. 6 UNC Asheville (12-17)
Date & Time	Thursday, March 5, 2025 (8:30 p.m.)
Location	Johnson City, Tenn. (Freedom Hall Civic Center)
2026 Air Force Reserve Big South Basketball Championship Page	Click Here
Longwood Tournament Central	Click Here
Game Notes	Longwood | UNC Asheville
Live Stats	Live Stats
Live Video	ESPN+ (Matt Hogue, Richmond Weaver and Summer Huechtker)
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodWBB

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- The Longwood women's basketball team opens play in the 2026 Air Force Reserve Big South Basketball Championship quarterfinals Thursday at 8:30 p.m., as the No. 3 seed against No. 6 UNC Asheville at Freedom Hall Civic Center.

STORYLINES
▪ Longwood is 9-12 overall all-time in the Big South tournament, including a 1-1 mark as the No. 3 seed. The Lancers defeated UNC Asheville as a No. 3 seed in the quarterfinals of the 2021 tournament, 83-69.
▪ Longwood closed the regular season with an 89-57 victory at Presbyterian, giving it 20 wins in consecutive seasons for the first time in Division I and 26 seasons overall. The Lancers also went 22-12 in 2021-22.
▪ Malea Brown was named Co-Big South Defensive Player of the Year Tuesday. Longwood has won at least a share of the award four times in the last six seasons. Brown joined Kiki McIntyre (2024-25) and Akila Smith (2020-21 and 2021-22) with the honor.
▪ Malea Brown (second), Otaifo Esenabhalu and Frances Ulysse (honorable mention), Jesstynie Scott (all-freshman) and Nalani Simmons (all-academic) were all named to the All-Big South Teams on Tuesday.
▪ The Lancers are receiving seven votes in the March 3 CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll. Longwood has gotten votes in the poll in eight different weeks this season.
▪ Longwood ranks inside the top 10 in NCAA Division I in five team statistical categories through games of March 2. They are: bench points per game (fourth, 31.5), steals per game seventh, 13.9), turnovers forced per game (seventh, 24.83), turnover margin (ninth, plus-7.66) and offensive rebounds per game (10th, 16.0). Individually, Otaifo Esenabhalu is also seventh in the country in offensive rebounds, averaging 4.2 per game.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
UNC Asheville comes into the tournament as the No. 6 seed at 12-17 overall, having won two consecutive games and three of its last four. Asheville is fifth in the league in scoring at 61.6 points per game, while ranking third in scoring defense at 60.3. Nia Green, an All-Big South Second Team pick, leads the conference in scoring at 15.0 points per game.

LAST TIME OUT
Longwood won at  Presbyterian, 89-57, on Saturday to close the regular season. The Lancers forced 36 turnovers and turned them into 36 points as 11 players scored with four in double figures. Malea Brown tallied a team-best 19 points and added seven rebounds, four assists and four steals. Amor Harris had 13 points, Lili Booker went 7-for-10 at the foul line to score 11, and Jesstynie Scott added 10 points with six rebounds and six steals.

FRESHMAN PHENOM
Guard Jesstynie Scott claimed her fourth Big South Freshman of the Week honor of the season on Jan. 26, sharing the award with Radford's Georgia Simonsen, averaging 16 points, five steals and 2.5 rebounds. Scott also claimed the award the first two times it was given on Nov. 10 and 17 as well as Dec. 1 this season. 

Kyla McMakin earned a program-record seven citations for Big South Freshman of the Week in 2019-20.

TURNING 'EM OVER
Longwood forced a season-high 51 turnovers against Bluefield on Nov. 14. The Lancers have now forced at least 30 turnovers 15 times in the last two seasons, including in the regular-season finale at Presbyterian.  Longwood is 13-2 (.867) in those games.

SCORING IN BUNCHES
The Lancers rank 29th in the NCAA in scoring, averaging 77.3 points per game. Longwood has put together nine different quarters of at least 30 points, including accomplishing the feat in the first, third and fourth frames against Bluefield on Nov. 14. Longwood posted a season-best 35-point third period versus the Rams. 

CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Malea Brown has 224 career steals in her three seasons at Longwood, which is currently tied for seventh all-time with Becky Fernandes (2006-10). 

Jesstynie Scott's 84 steals this season are tied for the eighth most in program history with Brown's total from the 2024-25 season. 

Otaifo Esenabhalu has 744 career rebounds in three seasons, which is currently ninth most all-time at Longwood.

FIRST TIME IN A WHILE
Longwood never trailed in an 80-42 win over Western Kentucky Nov. 8. The victory was Longwood's first against a current Conference USA foe since winning versus Jacksonville State, 69-64, at home on Jan. 11, 2005. It was also the first CUSA victory for a Big South school since Radford topped Liberty on Dec. 13, 2023.

FASTEST TO 10
With the Jan. 3 victory over Presbyterian to improve to 10-4, the Lancers reached double-digit wins in the fewest amount of games in their Division I history. In 2002-03, Division II Longwood accomplished the feat in 13 games, finishing the season 27-5 overall. 

ELITE COMPANY
In the changing landscape of college athletics where offseason player movement has become the norm, the Lancers did not lose a single player to the transfer portal this summer.

In fact, Longwood is one of just 19 schools in all of Division I women's basketball to boast of that this year, joining the likes of Power 4 schools Nebraska, Oregon, Syracuse and Washington. 

The others are: Air Force, Belmont, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Creighton, Dartmouth, Davidson, Drexel, Green Bay, Harvard, Marquette, Sam Houston and Princeton.

HALL TO THE HALL
Former Longwood great Nikki Hall-Atkinson was announced as one of six part of the Longwood Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2025 on Oct. 7.

Hall-Atkinson played for four seasons and has her jersey number retired, as well. She led Longwood to a pair of CVAC titles and three trips to the Division II NCAA tournament. She also earned All-America honorable mention twice.

As a senior, she was the CVAC Player of the Year in 1997, and she was named to the CVAC All-Time Team.

Hall-Atkinson finished her career with 1,499 career points which is currently fifth all-time at Longwood.

Hall-Atkinson took over on the bench for Shirley Duncan during the 2005-06 season.

SUCCESS AT HOME
Head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery helped the Lancers to a 10-5 record at the Joan Perry Brock Center in 2024-25. It was Longwood's best record at home since the 2020-21 Lancers went 11-3 at Willett Hall under Rebecca Tillett and were selected to compete in the Women's Basketball Invitational after finishing 14-11 overall.

The Lancers are set to play another 15 games at home this season, including seven in non-conference action. Among those, Longwood welcomes Western Kentucky of the Sun Belt Conference Nov. 8, George Washington Nov. 17 and Troy Dec. 3. The Trojans are ranked No. 10 in the March 3 mid-major top 25 poll.

LOCKED IN THROUGH 2030-31
Following the Lancers' Big South championship game appearance, trip to the postseason WNIT and 22-win season, head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery signed a six-year contract extension that will keep her in Farmville through the 2030-31 season. 

Lang-Montgomery and staff coached the Big South Defensive Player of the Year in Kiki McIntyre, who set the Longwood and Big South single-season record for steals (130), and led one of the most smothering defensive units in the country, which forced 27.47 turnovers per game, good for second in the NCAA. All that helped Longwood to a 13-win improvement from 2023-24.

WINNING THE FIRST TWO
The Lancers started 2-0 this season for the first time since 2006-07 when they beat American and Norfolk State under head coach Pamela Bass.

WALKING REBOUND
Junior forward Otaifo Esenabhalu entered her third season with the Lancers tied for 10th all-time in Longwood women's basketball history in career rebounding average at 7.6 boards per game. Esenabhalu is tied with Salene Green, who played 98 games at Longwood from 1988-92.

Esenabhalu has 33 double-digit rebound games in her career and the Lancers have gone 23-10 in those contests.

MALEA STEALS
Graduate student guard Malea Brown posted 84 steals in 2024-25, representing the eighth-most steals in a single season in Longwood history. 

She leads the team with 44 games of at least three steals, helping the Lancers to a 29-15 (.659) record in those contests.

LANCERS SECOND IN BIG SOUTH POLL
Longwood was picked second in the 2025-26 Big South preseason poll, announced at the conference media day in Johnson City, Tenn., on Oct. 15. The Lancers earned 69 points in the balloting with one first-place vote to finish behind just High Point (77 points and six first place nods). Radford was picked third with 67 points and one first-place vote. The final vote for the top spot went to UNC Asheville, which was ninth overall with 22 total points.

It marks the first time in program history that the Lancers have earned a first-place vote in the Big South poll.

SAME 5
Longwood has used the same five starters of Jasmine Peaks, Malea Brown, Amor Harris, JaMya Robinson and Frances Ulysse for 24-of-29 games this season. 

Before senior guard Jaci Bolden started in place of Harris as part of senior day against UNC Asheville on Feb. 7, the Lancers were one of just eight schools remaining in all of Division I women's basketball to start the same five players all year. 

Longwood has now used four starting lineups this season.

BONUS BASKETBALL
Longwood's 88-73 overtime win over Radford on Feb. 4 was the Lancers' first win in extra time since beating Gardner-Webb at Willett Hall, 85-79 on Feb. 2, 2019. Just two games later, Longwood topped High Point, 75-73, in OT on Feb. 11.

WELCOME TO PARADISE
Longwood spent the Thanksgiving holiday at the Puerto Rico Clasico in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, topping Buffalo, 68-64, and Stephen F. Austin, 68-60. 

Longwood shot better than the opposition in each game, finishing 37.7 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range. Longwood also posted 17.0 assists and 11.5 steals per game in the event, while also turning the opponent over an average of 24.5 times per game.

NINE NON-CON WINS
Longwood closed the regular-season non-league portion of its schedule at 9-4 overall for the second consecutive season. Last year's Lancers were 9-5 before the Big South schedule began.

RECORD BREAKER
Longwood smashed the single-game school record for attendance on Nov. 14, packing 2,467 fans into the Joan Perry Brock Center for its 128-31 homecoming victory over Bluefield. In four home dates this season, the Lancers are averaging 1,377 per contest.

BIG, BIG, BIG WIN
For the second time this season, Longwood went over 100 points in its 128-31 homecoming victory against Bluefield Nov. 14, scoring its most points in program history. The 97-point difference was also the widest margin of victory in history. The 128 points are the eighth most in a game this season in NCAA Division I.

GIMME THAT
Longwood swiped 32 steals in the 128-31 win over Bluefield on Nov. 14, tied for the third most in a single game at the NCAA Division I level this season, through games of Feb. 9. In fact, the Lancers have two of the top four best totals in a single game this season, having also grabbed 30 in their season-opening 121-35 victory against Randolph on Nov. 5.

THE REAL MCCOY
With head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery on leave to attend services for a death in her family, associate head coach Landis F. McCoy stepped in as acting head coach, helping the Lancers to a season-opening 121-35 win over Randolph, his first as a Division I head coach.

Lang-Montgomery returned to the sidelines for the Nov. 8 win over WKU.

50 WINS
Head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery claimed her 50th victory at Longwood in the 83-63 win at Charleston Southern Jan. 7. She is currently 59-63 overall at Longwood, including 36-30 in the Big South.