The Longwood Women’s basketball season is coming to a close in just a few days. With the Big South Conference tournament kicking off on March 6, the Women Lancers have to string some wins together to gain momentum for the tournament. Through a highly demanding non-conference schedule, which included the likes of Clemson University and James Madison University, the Lancers did not get off to the start they wanted. In the conference schedule, the Lancers have been able to show their quality. Though this season was rough at the start, fans have something to look forward to now with some conference wins under their belt.
After a heavy defeat on the road against Clemson, Longwood would grab a hard fought victory against Ohio on the road. This would mark the second year in a row that the Lancers went to beat the Bobcats on their home turf. However, the stretch of away games after this dramatic win would be a tough pill to swallow. The Lancers would play six away games in a row and lose them all. A non-conference slate with eight consecutive away games is tough for any team in the country, and the Lancers could not shake this precedence outside of their Ohio win.
As the Big South got underway, the Lancers would grab an away win at Charleston Southern University in the second game of conference play. After a loss to bitter rivals Radford University, Longwood returned home to play the Bulldogs of UNC Asheville. The Lancers would make the game close, but ultimately their late start let them down in a narrow loss. The game after was a different story. Longwood continued to play better at home as they downed conference contenders USC Upstate 66-58.
Since Longwood had a non-conference home game get canceled earlier this season, they had one more of those games to play. Division III Regent University was no match for Longwood’s Division I status in a game where the Lancers put up 103 points. Not only did the Lancers score 100, but all 13 players scored in the game as well. The Lancers players cheered for every shot that some of the younger and less-experienced players made. Head Coach Erika Lang-Montgomery stated “That’s kind of us, that’s who we’ve been all season and I think it really showed tonight on the floor.” Freshman Center Otaifo Esenabhalu had her first career double-double in the thrashing of Regent. “[I had] just the same mentality [where] I go in and play my game. I couldn’t do it without my teammates,” Esenabhalu said.
Back in conference play, a late collapse against High Point would seal another loss. To finish the third of three home games in a row, the Lancers hosted the Buccaneers of Charleston Southern. In a 63-56 win, Junior point guard Kiki McIntyre led the Lancers with 16 points and five rebounds on 6-10 shooting. Senior Guard Janay Turner added 15 of her own. “[We put] a really big emphasis on our defense…as we started the second round of conference we really wanted to be intentional about our communication on the defensive end…that was a big third quarter for us to only hold them to nine points,” said Lang-Montgomery.
In a road loss to USC Upstate, Longwood held the Spartans to just 49 points. The problem was that the Lancers didn’t score more than 45. That would be the story again in another low-scoring road loss, this time at Winthrop. Back at home against Presbyterian, the Blue Hose beat the Lancers by 15 after a lopsided 4th quarter. This game was not all doom and gloom for the Lancers though, as long serving guard Adriana Shipp-Davis reached the coveted 1,000 point milestone for her career. A feat that only around 100 players have ever done in the Big South Conference. Shipp-Davis said, “I think I’m lucky, first of all because of all the injuries I had to go through… also it’s hard to celebrate a milestone like this when our record is the way it is, so hopefully we can start to put some wins together.”
A late surge against UNC Asheville to beat the Bulldogs was not only much-needed, but it was also timely with the conference tournament right around the corner. Through a season that had been a growing experience for everyone involved, Longwood Women’s basketball has put building blocks in place to grow the stature of this program. With three more games to go the Lancers have a chance to end the season on a high.
