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Friday, July 11, 2025

WBB: Lancers earn first Big South win

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WBB vs Winthrop

In a frantic, end-to-end contest at Willett Hall, the Longwood women’s basketball team emerged victorious over Winthrop, 83-78. The Feb. 11 win was the first conference win of the season for the Lancers, who improved to 4-19 (1-11), while the Eagles dropped to 2-22 (1-11).

“I told them (the team) in the locker room, it felt like a 10,000-pound gorilla jumped off our back,” said head coach Bill Reinson. “We’ve played some good basketball, haven’t played 40 minutes of basketball, today we had some lulls, but it just feels great to get number one.”

“It feels like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders. Honestly, we’ve been waiting for that and waiting to put together a good game,” said junior guard and captain Micaela Ellis, who finished with a school-record 15 assists along with 13 points. “It just felt like a lot of things came together today.”

Both sides raced out from the opening tip, trading blows back and forth. Reinson’s side went on a 16-4 run at one point in the first half, but Winthrop’s senior guard Erica Williams kept the Eagles in contention, down 38-35 to the hosts at the half.

“I don’t think we understood the concept of keeping the ball out of her (Williams) hands. So we’ll have to improve that,” said Reinson. “Honestly, she banked in a three at the end of the game. At some point, it’s just that shots go in.”

The second half brought more of the same, as Ellis and the Lancers tried to outpace the effort of Williams, who finished with a remarkable 35 points. Longwood pulled away with a 14-0 run late in the fourth quarter, punctuated by a trio of three-pointers from redshirt freshman guard Kate Spradlin, each one assisted by Ellis.

“On the assists, a lot of it goes to Kate, honestly. She just came up and hit a lot of big shots,” said Ellis. “It was just a lot of us having confidence in our shooters and letting them do what they do.”

“When I hit the first couple and they started telling me to shoot, I felt that they had confidence in me and I was able to let it fly,” added Spradlin, who collected all of her 21 points from beyond the arc.

Spradlin and Ellis were two of five players in double figures for the Lancers. Senior forward Eboni Gilliam notched 19 points, sophomore forward Kemari Jones scored 10, while sophomore guard Ashlee Jones pitched in with 13 points off the bench.

“It’s very rare, unfortunately, that we have four or five people show up at the same time. We’ll have two people have a great game, two people playing so-so. Today, we had four or five people,” said Reinson.

Now with their first win in 2017, the Lancers will host Radford on Feb. 14, giving Reinson’s squad a chance to build a winning streak.

“Radford plays excellent defense, so we’re not going to score 83,” said Reinson. “So our defense is going to have to be better than it was (today).”




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