December 6, 2006

BOX SCORE

FARMVILLE, Va.-- The Longwood women’s basketball team rallied late in the second half but fell short in Wednesday evening’s 59-52 loss to Maryland-Eastern Shore at Willett Hall in Farmville.  Longwood falls to 4-6 on the year, while the Hawks move to 3-6.  The Lancers will return to action Saturday December 9 at 3 p.m. hosting Maryland-Baltimore County.
    
UMES jumped out to a four-point lead scoring on its first two possessions of the game.  Senior Abbey Freese/West Liberty, Ohio (West Liberty-Salem) cut the deficit to one, hitting a three-pointer at the top of the key for the Lancer’s first basket of the night.  Freese tallied ten of Longwood’s first 12 points in the opening ten minutes of the game.  The Hawks were able to build a ten point lead with 1:33 remaining in the half before the Lancers closed out the first twenty minutes strong.  Ashleigh Hollman’s/Centreville (Westfield) three and Odessa Williams’/Stratford, Conn. (Stratford) lay-up cut the Hawks’ halftime lead to five.  At the break Freese led the shooters on both squads tallying ten points.
    
Like the start of the game the Hawks scored on their first two possessions to build a ten point lead that was cut to seven on another three-pointer by Freese.  UMES led by as many as 11 points on two occasions in the final twenty minutes.  After a jumper by Candyce Jeter with 4:30 to go in the game, the Lancer defense buckled down and held the Hawks scoreless for the next four minutes.  Led by junior Keiva Small/Norfolk (Norview) down the stretch, Longwood was able to cut the Hawks’ lead to three with just under two minutes to go, after Small blocked a shot on the defensive side of the floor and finished it with a jumper on the other end putting the score at 55-52.  But that was as close as the Lancers got as, Longwood was unable to sink the equalizer.
    
“There were times tonight that you could see just how explosive we can be,” stated head coach Pamela Bass.  “We executed two parts of our game plan in holding UMES’ two top players inside to less than their season point average and we limited their transition points to zero.  We still are a young team and every chance we can get out there and play is invaluable, especially in close games like tonight.  Abbey Freese had the hot hand for us tonight and it was great to see.  She, as she has all season, hit some huge shots for us all game.”
   
Freese finished the game with a game high 17 points, while Williams tallied 13 of her own in the loss.  As a team Longwood shot for 35% from the floor and 80% from the free-throw line.