Longwood’s Women’s basketball team was eliminated from the Big South Conference tournament Tuesday afternoon after losing their first game to the Presbyterian College Blue Hose, 54-40.
Presbyterian’s defense seemed to be the big difference maker for the game. They forced Longwood to shoot 25.5 percent from the field, while forcing nine turnovers.
“I know that they're a team not a lot of teams want to play against, and they're very disciplined; they play terrific basketball,” said Head Coach Bill Reinson.
Sophomore guards Daeisha Brown and Raven Williams were the top scorers for Longwood, each racking up 14 points. Williams also pulled down a team leading seven rebounds in 38 minutes of play.
Presbyterian freshman forward Keyonna Allen and Aianna Kelly were the top scorers for their team, Allen with 16 and Kelly with 13. They both added nine rebounds each.
The game was evenly matched throughout; at one point Longwood had a five point lead. Then, at the 9:43 mark, sophomore forward Khalilah Ali went out with a knee injury. According to Reinson, the injury has something to do with her MCL.
“Seems as though the knee is stable. So it’s probably a sprain, but that’s all I’ve heard so far,” said Reinson.
Injuries have been hurting the team all season long, and this just added to the unlucky year the Lancers have faced. According to Reinson, it made it more difficult because it’s harder to bring players back into a game plan than actually being without them.
“I think we really ran out of time more than the injuries hurt us,” said Reinson.
At the time of the injury, Longwood was tied with Presbyterian with 33 each. The injury seemed to help Presbyterian as they went on to finish the game, scoring 21 points while holding Longwood to just seven.
“To me, it was like we couldn't score. We had 33 points for a long period of time, and we finished with 40, so during that eight minute stretch, it seemed like we just couldn't score,” said Brown. “I felt like we played great defense, but on the other end, we just couldn't finish and couldn't score.”
“They [Longwood’s shots] just wouldn't fall, and we kept trying, but we fell short at the end,” said Williams.
This is a big difference from last season’s tournament where Longwood’s women went on an amazing run into the final game but unfortunately lost to Liberty.
“It's a big upset. Going into this tournament we were the underdogs, so coming into it we had to make a statement,” said Brown. “To a point we did, but the eight minute stretch just took us. Last year was a great feeling, and I had way bigger expectations this year, but we fell short.”
Regardless of winning or losing, Reinson was very proud of his crew for playing as well as they did.
“They've battled all year long through a lot of adversity, and we showed up today and we played very, very hard,” said Reinson.
No. 7 Presbyterian will be facing No. 2 Liberty at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 6; coverage of the game will be provided by the Big South Network.
