On a cold January night in Farmville, Virginia, the Longwood Lancers grabbed their first conference win after taking down Charleston Southern 83-78. Longwood improves to a 1-1 conference record after the win, which creates a very tight conference standings after two games, with seven of the nine teams at 1-1.
After dropping their conference opener to Presbyterian, the Lancers returned home for the first time in three weeks to face Charleston Southern. The visiting Buccaneers emerged victorious in their opener against Gardner Webb and came out of the gate full of confidence. Longwood continued to struggle early on from the floor. In the first 12 minutes, the Lancers only shot 7-18.
It didn’t get much better during the rest of the first half, as Longwood shot 12 of 29 with the score at 35-31 in favor of the Buccaneers. Charleston Southern’s Taje’ Kelly and Daylen Berry combined for 27 of their 35 points at the break. Guard Colby Garland led the Lancers at half with 11.
Longwood came out of the break firing on all cylinders and the rust shown in the first half completely disappeared. Led by forward Elijah Tucker, the Lancers made their first five shots of the second half.
Finally, the deep balls began to fall. Graduate student Michael Christmas and junior guard KJ McClurg hit deep 3s to put Longwood in the driver’s seat. As the game was winding down, Charleston Southern kept Longwood in check after the Lancers went on a 25-7 run. However, anyone who thought the game was over would have been mistaken. With 1:35 to go, the Buccaneers cut the Lancers’ lead to just five. That was Longwood’s margin of victory in the end.
Point guard Kyrell Luc finished with 19 points, while Charleston Southern’s Taje’ Kelly ended with 25.
The game was truly a tale of two halves. Longwood shot only 41% from the field in the first half and followed it up in the second half by shooting nearly 70%. Much like most of their wins in the non-conference slate, Longwood dug themselves a hole, and it eventually got out of it in a second-half shooting blitz.
“Basketball is two halves. Last game, we had a slow 3-point shooting night,” said Garland. “[It was] good to see a lot more go in [tonight], and we picked our energy up. We knew we were playing a good Charleston Southern team that’s very physical. And we answered the challenge.”
After a tough outing last game, the Lancers found their form and spread the ball to find open teammates.
“The ball moved…We had four assists in the first half and 10 in the second half. I think that tells you that the ball was really moving,” said Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich.
Though the Lancers are smaller than Charleston Southern, they outrebounded them, which came from physicality all over the floor, especially in the second half.
“[We started] playing defense as a collective, talking more on defense and making sure we switch up high. Everything starts on defense, which helps us get into transition and find open shots for teammates,” said Luc.
Next, Longwood welcomes the UNC Asheville Bulldogs to town at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday on ESPN+. While the students are on break, the town of Farmville shows up to create a very student-like atmosphere without the students.
“The community came out to support us big time. Farmville’s a great place. [It’s] very family-oriented,” said Garland. “They come out, and they enjoy watching basketball, and I enjoy playing for this city, and Wednesday, when the students still aren’t back, they will fill the gym up again.”
