The Longwood Lancers took down MEAC opposition Maryland Eastern Shore on Thursday for an 80-76 victory to survive an early scare. Longwood fended off impressive shot-making from the visitors to improve its record to 8-2.
Coming off a 100-point outing against Division III Regent, the Lancers played at home against UMES. Both teams flew out the gate and couldn’t miss. At the first media timeout, the score was tied at 11. The visiting Hawks then made just about every shot they took for the minutes that ensued as they scored 11 unanswered points. As the game nearly got out of hand, Longwood began to storm back. The score at the halftime favored Maryland Eastern Shore 40-39. Sophomore guard Colby Garland led the Lancers with 14 at the break, while guard Evan Johnson had 18 for the Hawks at half.
The second half began with Longwood playing tough defense and forcing the Hawks to give the ball away cheaply many times, but the fouls also piled up. The game quickly turned into a nail-biter as the score was level at 51 at the under-12 media timeout. The shot-making from both teams went from good in the first half to borderline incredible in the second. Maryland Eastern Shore shot 23 of 36 from the field at the last media timeout. Longwood needed clutch buckets down the stretch and got them from graduate student forward Michael Christmas. The Lancers saw the game out after a clutch rebound by Garland with only a few seconds left which led to the Lancers wining by four.
Longwood came into the game as heavy favorites but only gutted out a four-point win. This was partly because Maryland Eastern Shore repeatedly hit tough shots to the point where it could have gotten the Lancers incredibly discouraged. UMES shot 60% from the field and over 45% from 3.
“One of the key elements of any great team is a team that can withstand adversity,” said Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich. “I thought we did a good job of not getting frustrated by [Maryland Eastern Shore] making shots, I thought we may have gotten frustrated by not executing on the offensive end and that impacted us on the defensive end,” Aldrich continued.
However, Longwood maintained an advantage on the glass as they registered eight more rebounds than the Hawks.
Longwood maintained the theme of starting slow in the first 10 minutes and then finding ways back into the game. Maryland Eastern Shore had a 15-0 run in the middle of the first half, and it was because of grit and toughness, the Lancers held it to a one-point game at the half.
“I think we came out kind of casual. When we made shots we weren’t sprinting back on defense,” said Garland.
Longwood started to force more turnovers in the second half, and UMES ended the night with 21 turnovers to Longwood’s eight.
“At halftime, coach got on us, we fixed [our defense] and tightened it up, and we came back and hit them in the mouth,” Garland concluded.
Aldrich only went eight players deep into his rotation on Thursday, whereas he occasionally goes to 11 players in certain games.
“What was impressive for me about Colby [Garland] was that he was able to maintain his effort level…and play a lot of minutes. I thought he had a very steady game. He made a lot of shots and I thought he took the right ones,” said Aldrich.
The Lancers now take the top spot in the Big South with their 8-2 non-conference record and five more non-conference games remaining. Their next game is a home clash with Division III Mary Baldwin at 5:30 p.m. Sunday on ESPN+.
