FARMVILLE, Va. – With under three minutes remaining and a one-possession game in full swing, Longwood's leading scorer was nowhere near the action.
 
Instead redshirt junior forward Khris Lane, in the midst of a career night, was relegated to the bench with five fouls, becoming the highest-scoring spectator in Willett Hall for the game's final two minutes.
 
At least he had a prime seat for the grand finale.
 
Lane's career-high 30 points set the stage for a dramatic finish in a barnburner of a Big South opener, as senior captain Darrion Allen grabbed his own rebound and laid in the game-winning putback with five seconds remaining to lift Longwood (4-8, 1-0 Big South) to a 79-77 win over Campbell Thursday evening in Willett Hall.
 
Allen's hero moment was the last of several in a game that saw the lead change hands 13 times and stay within one possession during the entirety of the final 2:14 after Lane's departure.
 
"Honestly, I wasn't even that worried," said Lane, whose 30-point game was Longwood's first since former All-Big South guard Quincy Taylor scored 30 against Charleston Southern on Feb. 4, 2015. "When you have a guy out there like [Allen], and somebody who can take over a game like Isaiah [Walton] can, it's hard to be worried. I wanted to be in there, but I knew we were in good hands."
 
With Lane on the bench, the backcourt duo of Allen and Walton put Longwood on their backs, hitting back-to-back go-ahead shots on their last two possessions to give the Lancers their first win in a Big South opener since joining the league in 2012-13.
 
After the Big South's leading scorer Chris Clemons hit a go-ahead free throw with 59 seconds left to put Campbell (7-6, 0-1 Big South) up 75-74, Walton let loose a long three-pointer that splashed through to regain Longwood's lead with 44 seconds on the clock. Clemons responded 10 seconds later with a pull-up jumper that tied the game at 77-77, but Allen finished off a surgical final possession by driving to the hoop, grabbing his own miss and putting it back up through traffic to reclaim the lead for good.
 
"What I liked most about that is DJ Allen wanted the ball. He wanted the ball at the end," said Longwood head coach Jayson Gee, who improved to 5-1 against Campbell. "We drew up sort of an Iverson action where we cleared out a side and we got him the ball. That was all about his ability to get to the basket, and his will to finish."
 
After Allen's go-ahead putback, Clemons got the last look at the basket but his heave from three-point range clanged off the rim as the final buzzer sounded.
 
"DJ played 40 minutes tonight, and he didn't wear down," Gee said. "He just stayed at it, stayed at it, stayed at it, and I thought he was fresh at the end, which gave him a huge advantage. The last eight minutes of the game were his best eight minutes."
 
Allen scored 10 of his 19 points over the game's final 8:49, hitting all six free throws and 3-of-5 shots from the floor. It was his team-leading 10th double-digit scoring effort of the season and came just eight days after going scoreless against Texas Tech on Dec. 22, the first time he was shut out since his sophomore season. He responded Thursday by hitting a career-best 10-of-11 free throws against Campbell, including all eight in the second half.
 
Lane, meanwhile, channeled his inner Lotanna Nwogbo, mirroring his former All-Big South first team partner in the paint by hitting 13-of-16 shots from the field, grabbing eight rebounds and stuffing the stat sheet with two steals, a block and an assist. He hit a pair of treys, both in the second half, each swinging the lead back in Longwood's favor.
 
"Our guys did a great job getting him the ball," Gee said of Lane. "[Associate head coach Jake Luhn], this was his scout, and what he just kept saying was how for Lane, this could be his game. He was going to have a huge advantage at the basket. Khris bought into that and submitted to that. I thought it really paid off."
 
Allen, Lane and Walton combined to score 65 points, including 37 of Longwood's 44 in the second half. Walton added 16 points and dished seven assists, all but one of which were to Allen or Lane.
 
Longwood's Big Three, along with an 11-point contribution from freshman forward JaShaun Smith, offset a 24-point night from Clemons, who entered the game as the Big South's top scorer at 22.4 points per game. He scored 12 of Campbell's final 17 points, including five during an 11-3 run that saw the Fighting Camels overcome an eight-point deficit to tie the game with 2:57 remaining.
 
The night, however, belonged to the Lancers, who improved to 4-2 at home and won their second straight game on the recently dedicated Jerome Kersey Court. The victory propels Longwood into a New  Year's Even showdown against reigning Big South regular season champion High Point in High Point, N.C., Saturday.
 
"We all came together and said the non-conference season is behind us," Allen said. "We can't do anything about it. We learned, we made mistakes, we learned from our mistakes, and we got better. Now it's a completely different season. There are three parts to the season – non-conference, conference and the postseason – and we're focusing on this one right now. We're 1-0."
 
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