Longwood University Athletics

Game 29: Longwood (11-17, 6-9 Big South) at USC Upstate (11-16, 6-8 Big South)
Date	Thursday, February 20, 2020
Time	6 p.m.
Location	Spartanburg, S.C. (Hodge Center)
Game Notes	Longwood (PDF) | USC Upstate (PDF) | Big South
Statistics	Longwood (HTML) | USC Upstate (PDF) | Big South (HTML)
Live Stats	USC Upstate Live Stats
Radio	WVHL 92.9 FM Kickin' Country
Video/TV	ESPN+
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodMBB

The Opening Tip
•    In a game rife with Big South implications, Longwood heads to USC Upstate with an opportunity to continue its climb up the conference standings. Longwood is one-half game behind USC Upstate in the Big South standings, while both teams are mired in a conference logjam that has seven teams separated by just one win. 
•    The Lancers are among the Big South's hottest teams, winning five of their past eight games with two of those losses coming by just two points.
•    Thursday's matchup will be a showdown between two second-year Big South coaches who were hired by their respective institutions within two weeks of each. Longwood tabbed Griff Aldrich as its new head coach on March 22, 2018, and USC Upstate followed by naming Dave Dickerson on April 5, 2018.
•    Longwood forward Leslie Nkereuwem was named Big South Freshman of the Week Monday, the first such award of his young career.

Last Time Out
•    Longwood junior Jordan Cintron logged his fourth career double-double and provided spark after spark with a bevy of hustle plays to ignite a milestone 76-68 win over Hampton Saturday evening in Willett Hall.
 •    The 6-8, 230-pound forward stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, 11 rebounds, two steals and an assist to send the Lancers to a program-best sixth Big South win and their fifth victory in the past eight games. 
•    The win was Longwood's first over Hampton in five Big South-era matchups and gave the Lancers wins over three of the five teams picked ahead of them in this year's Big South preseason poll. 
•    Cintron finished as one of four double-digit scorers, leading a quartet that included Juan Munoz with 16 points, DeShaun Wade with 11 and Shabooty Phillips with 10. 
•    Longwood broke a 48-48 tie with a 9-0 run at the 10:58 mark and never trailed the rest of the way.

By The Numbers
•    Longwood has significantly cut down on its turnovers in the past five games, averaging just 10.6 during that span which is the team's best five-game stretch all season. The Lancers have committed just six giveaways twice in that span, doing so in a 57-56 win over Campbell and a 76-68 win over Hampton.
•    Point guard Shabooty Phillips boasts a 2.75 (22:8) assist-to-turnover ratio over his past five games. He has finished with more assists than turnovers in all five of those outings, during which Longwood is 3-2.
•    Since conference play began, Longwood has been the Big South's top three-point shooting team with 9.5 made treys per game. The Lancers have hit at least 10 treys in nine of their 15 Big South games and boast a .361 (142-of-393) clip that ranks fourth in league play.
•    Point guard Juan Munoz has led that charge from long range, shooting a Big South-leading .439 (36-of-82) from beyond the arc. He has hit at least one trey in all 14 Big South games he has played.
•    Longwood is 6-1 this season when shooting at least 40.0 percent from three-point range. The lone loss in those games came on Feb. 13 at UNC Asheville when the Bulldogs survived a .417 (10-of-24) clip to hand Longwood a 73-71 defeat.
•    With a 76-68 win over Hampton this past Saturday, Longwood set a new program best for Big South wins, surpassing the five conference games won by the 2018-19, 2015-16 and 2014-15 Lancers.
•    Longwood has amassed a Big South-leading 118 steals in conference play, good for an average of 7.9 per game. Juan Munoz has 25 of those for the third most of any player in league games.
•    Freshmen Heru Bligen and Leslie Nkereuwem have combined to average 12.5 points per game over the past six games.

Quotable
"Getting those rebounds, for us it really sent a message to Hampton that we wanted it and we were going to do whatever we had to do to take it."
— Longwood junior Jordan Cintron on grabbing two rebounds and sinking a jumper on the same possession near the end of Longwood's 76-68 win over Hampton Saturday

Series History
•    Longwood and USC Upstate meet for the second time this season and ninth time in program history Thursday in a series the Spartans lead 7-1.
•    USC Upstate is 2-1 against Longwood since joining the Big South during the 2018-19 season. 
•    Longwood's last win came on Feb. 16, 2019, when the Lancers edged out an 83-79 victory. JaShaun Smith scored 19 points in that win.
•    USC Upstate took the last meeting in Spartanburg, S.C., 80-63 in a matchup that was the first between the teams in their respective Big South eras.

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