The Longwood Lancers lost a fifth consecutive game in Big South play on Saturday evening to a tough and gritty Presbyterian team, 77-68. The Lancers had one of their worst shooting nights of the season, going 14% from 3-point range and 40% from the field overall. Longwood now has four conference games left before the Big South Tournament in Tennessee.
The shorthanded Lancers dropped their last game against High Point on the road. The Lancers returned home to play the Presbyterian Blue Hose on Saturday. Before the game, the Lancers celebrated Senior Day and honored the players who gave so much time and energy to the program.
As the game got underway, the visiting Blue Hose (11-16, 4-8 Big South) ran out to an early lead that got as big as seven in the early going. Following 3-pointers from graduate student Michael Christmas and junior guard Angelo Brizzi, Longwood (16-11, 5-7 Big South) gained a few leads here and there, but ultimately went in the half trailing 38-34. Brizzi led the hosts with nine points, while Presbyterian guards Quadir Pettaway and Carl Parrish had nine of their own for the Blue Hose.
The Lancers and Blue Hose started the second half, equaling each other in every aspect of the game. Fouls began to pile up for the Blue Hose, and Longwood capitalized at the free-throw line. Senior point guard Kyrell Luc had 12 points midway through the first half, with 10 points from the line. The game began to mirror the last clash between the two programs, where a neck-and-neck game favored Presbyterian.
This mid-February clash had slightly more scoring, however. Still, Longwood’s struggles from behind the arch seemed to mirror the performance in Clinton, South Carolina, on Jan. 2. With under a minute to go, Presbyterian’s Kobe Stewart hit a heavily contested floater to put the visitors up by six. This proved insurmountable for the Lancers as they fell by nine for their second home conference loss.
Luc and Elijah Tucker both had 15 points for the Lancers. Pettaway led Presbyterian with a career day, scoring 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
“It’s tough. We played Thursday, and [we] came back out Saturday, so we’re just trying to stay healthy and stick to the gameplans that we have,” Luc said. “We have people stepping up from the bench. We’re still trying to figure out the new rotation.”
Now, amid a five-game losing streak, the Lancers have been down three key rotational players in Johan Nziemi, KJ McClurg and Emanuel Richards. Guard Colby Garland is also dealing with a minor injury issue, but he still played 19 minutes.
“Our depth is impacting us, there’s no doubt about that,” said Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich. “But at the same time, our execution and miscues were really the story of the game. At the end of the day, it was the errors on the offensive end, whether it was shot selection or turnovers, and it was the errors on defense, [from] fouling or losing guys on switches, that’s really the story of the game.”
Longwood’s struggles from the 3-point line have been a fairly recent problem, as the Lancers only made one triple in the game against High Point and only converted 2 of 14 attempts in this game.
“We’re number one right now during conference in three-point percentage in conference games,” said Aldrich. “We missed eleven free throws and some front end of one-and-one’s. It’s hard to win games when you don’t shoot the ball well, and you miss that many free throws.”
The Lancers stay at home this week and take on Gardner-Webb at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday on ESPN+.
