Women's Basketball Bench Celebration
The Opening Tip
• Longwood opens a week on the road against two of the top teams in the Big South with a fellow commonwealth of Virginia opponent, the Highlanders of Radford University, before finishing the week against the Fighting Camels of Campbell University.
• Sophomore Akila Smith is coming off a week with 13 blocks, including a career-best eight blocks against Hampton University in Longwood's previous contest.
• The Lancers are two Big South wins shy from matching the program record for conference wins in Big South play.
• Freshman Kyla McMakin continues to be the most explosive offensive player in the Big South Conference, leading the league in scoring, averaging 17.8 points per game.
Last Time Out
• Hampton's Laren VanArsdale recorded a season-high for the Pirates 31 points to defeat Longwood 90-76, despite Kyla McMakin's third double-double of the season and a career-best from Tra'Dayja Smith.
• Kyla McMakin finished with her third double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Tra'Dayja Smith recorded a career-best with 19 points in the loss, shooting 5-of-10 from the court and a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line.
• Longwood swatted nine shots against the Pirates with sophomore Akila Smith coming two blocks shy of the single-game record with eight blocks. Smith matched the single-season record for Longwood with her performance against Hampton, giving her 56 blocks on the season.
By the Numbers
• Longwood's offense continues to be one of the best in the Big South Conference. The Lancers lead the conference in field goal percentage converting on .411 percent of their shots. Longwood and High Point are leading the league in scoring with both programs averaging 67.0 points per game.
• The offense is not all the Lancers bring to the court; Longwood's defense is a shot-blocking force. The Lancers lead the Big South averaging 6.09 blocks per game, and for the sixth time in 12 seasons, Longwood has recorded 100+ blocks in a season.
• The Lancers are not a team you want to give opportunities at the free-throw line. Longwood is the second in Big South shooting .742 from the charity stripe, converting 273 of their 368 free throws on the season.
• The duo of All-Big South Dayna Rouse and the frontrunner for Big South Freshman of the Year Kyla McMakin are responsible for the offensive success the Lancers have experienced this season. McMakin has made an immediate impact in the Big South in her freshman campaign, ranking first in scoring at 17.8 points per game. Rouse averages 15.2 points per game and ranks fourth in the league. Longwood joins High Point as the only two programs in the Big South with two women in the top-five in league scoring.
• A five-tool player is rare, but Longwood has one in Dayna Rouse. Rouse finds herself in the top-10 in the Big South in scoring (15.2), rebounding (7.2), double-doubles (6) FG% (.538), blocks (2.1), steals (1.6), minutes (33.7).
• Junior Tra'Dayja Smith has a knack for distributing the ball and finding the open Lancer. Smith leads the Big South and ranks eighth in Division I in assists, distributing an average of 6.4 assists per game.
• Blocks are a common theme for the Lancers' defense. Akila Smith leads the team with 56 on the season, with senior Dayna Rouse looking to regain the top spot with 48 blocks. Rouse's 48 blocks give her 119 career blocks, moving her into third all-time in the women's basketball record book.
• Playing as a freshman is hard to do, but making an immediate impact as a freshman is rare, having two freshmen making doing both is unheard of. Still, Kyla McMakin and Anne-Hamilton LeRoy are doing just that for the Lancers. McMakin and LeRoy are two of the four freshmen in the Big South, averaging double-digits for their respected programs. McMakin leads all freshmen in scoring, and LeRoy is the third-highest scoring freshmen in the Big South, averaging 11.2 points per. LeRoy ranks eleventh in Big South Conference games in field goal percentage converting on .390 percent of her shots taken in league play.
Series History
• Longwood and Radford meed for the second time this season after the Highlanders defeated Longwood 62-61 in front of a record crowd of 1,812 fans.
• The Lancers have dropped the last eleven meetings between Longwood and Radford with the Lancers' last victory coming in Farmville on Feb. 22, 2014.
• In the previous meeting, Kyla McMakin took over with a 17-point fourth quarter that gave Longwood an opportunity to win on the final possession. McMakin finished with 29 points in the loss.
#GoWood
