Longwood University Athletics

Games 9&10: Longwood (1-7, 0-2 Big South) vs. UNC Asheville (3-4, 2-0 Big South)
Date & Time	Game 1: Wednesday, Dec. 30 (3 p.m.) • Game 2: Thursday, Dec. 31 (3 p.m.)
Location	Farmville, Va. (Willett Hall)
Game Notes	Longwood (PDF) | UNC Asheville | Big South
Statistics	Longwood (HTML) | UNC Asheville (PDF) | Big South (HTML)
Live Stats	Games 1&2: Longwood Live Stats
Radio	WVHL 92.9 FM Kickin' Country
Video/TV	Game 1: ESPN+  • Game 2: ESPN+
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodMBB

The Opening Tip
•    With the non-conference portion of its 2020-21 regular season in the rearview, Longwood begins an 18-game Big South gauntlet with back-to-back home games against UNC Asheville Wednesday and Thursday in Willett Hall.
•    The Big South's unorthodox double-round-robin conference schedule pits the Lancers against every Big South team twice in back-to-back gamedays taking place on consecutive days at the same venues.
•    Wednesday's game will be Longwood's Big South home opener in Willett Hall where the Lancers are 19-13 in three seasons under Griff Aldrich.
•    The Lancers have been within one possession in the final minute of four of their losses this season, including both games against Radford..
•    Longwood has gotten a combined 16 starts from freshmen this season, the most in the Big South.

Last Time Out
•    Behind 18 points from Jalen Cone, No. 24 Virginia Tech defeated Longwood 84-58 Monday in Cassell Coliseum in a Dec. 21 matchup that was Longwood's last non-conference game of the season.
•    The outsized Hokies controlled the interior, scoring 40 points in the paint and generating 21 points off second-chance opportunities.
•    Virginia Tech's bench scored more points (45) than its starting lineup (39).
•    Longwood got a career-high eight points from true freshman Jesper Granlund, who finished 4-of-5 from the floor. Junior Zac Watson also poured in eight points on 4-of-6 shooting, while sophomore Leslie Nkereuwem scored 10 for his  second straight double-digit scoring night.
•    Lancer guards Heru Bligen and DeShaun Wade also returned from injury to play 20-plus minutes each.

By The Numbers
•    Longwood's freshmen have accounted for 42 percent of the team's total minutes.
•    Entering the season, 10 of Longwood's 17 players had never suited up in a Lancer uniform. Only two of those — redshirt junior Juan Munoz and redshirt sophomore Abraham Deng — have been in the program for two full seasons.
•    True freshmen Jesper Granlund and Justin Hill have started every game this season, making Longwood the only Big South team with multiple freshmen in the starting lineup every game.
•    Hill is the Big South's No. 2 freshman scorer at 11.9 points per game and ranks fifth in the league in both assists (4.3 apg.) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.55).
•    Forward Leslie Nkereuwem leads the Big South in field goal percentage, sinking 75.0 percent (30-of-40) of his shots from the floor. He also leads the team with 11 dunks and has at least one slam in seven of eight games this season.
•    Nkereuwem has increased his scoring average by 5.1 points per game since 2019-20. He is also attempting nearly twice as many field goals per game, bumping his average from 2.6 attempts per game as a freshman to 5.0 as a sophomore.
•    Nkereuwem has hit 13-of-17 field goals in his past two games, leading to the first back-to-back double-digit scoring efforts of his college career.
•    After being hampered by injuries in the first six games of the season, veteran guards Heru Bligen and DeShaun Wade both played more than 20 minutes against Virginia Tech on Dec. 21. That marked the first time all season those two topped that benchmark in the same game.
•    Juan Munoz has hit a three-pointer in 26 consecutive games dating back to the 2019-20 season. 
•    Through the first eight games, four different Lancers have led the team in scoring, while five had led the team in rebounding. 

Quotable
"I just wanted to do something for people who are going through the same thing I went through when I was younger. I just wanted to share my blessings with other people."
 — Longwood junior Jermaine Drewey on the holiday gift drive he and his family organized for his childhood neighborhood in Houston, Texas

Series History
•    Longwood and UNC Asheville meet for the 17th time in series history and the 15th time as members of the Big South Wednesday in Farmville. UNC Asheville holds a 15-2 lead in that series.
•    The Bulldogs enter the matchup on a two-game win streak in the series with both of those wins coming by fewer than five points. The last matchup was a 73-71 UNC Asheville win on Feb. 13, 2020 in Asheville, which followed a 71-66 UNC Asheville win earlier that season on Jan. 20 in Farmville.
•    The past four games in the series have all been decided by five points or fewer.
•    Longwood's last win over UNC Asheville was a 67-62 triumph in Farmville on Jan. 10, 2019.

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