FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood's 21-point win over High Point in Tuesday's opener was never in doubt, but Wednesday's rematch was a different story.
 
The resurgent Lancers found a way to win anyway.
 
Just 24 hours after dismantling Big South rival High Point 75-54 Tuesday, Longwood (5-13, 4-8 Big South) clamped down on the defensive end once again and used a runaway second half to deal the Panthers a 67-54 loss and complete a regular-season sweep Wednesday evening in Willett Hall.
 
On a night in which Longwood's early shooting woes allowed High Point (3-8, 1-5 Big South) to build a nine-point lead early in the first half, the Lancers' defense pulled them through once again. The Panthers scored just 22 points after halftime and hit just 18 field goals for the game as the Lancers surrendered a season-low 54 points for the second straight night.
 
Wednesday's victory is the latest in a midseason resurgence for the Lancers, who have now won three of their past five Big South games and three straight at home. Keying that turnaround has been a revitalized defense buoyed by the return of guards Heru Bligen and DeShaun Wade, who were limited in the first six games of the season but have since returned to help Longwood hold Big South foes to just 65.3 points per game, the second-lowest average in the conference.
 
"You look at this team where it is today versus where it was a couple weeks ago, and I really think the growth this team has had is in their consistency," said Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich, who improved to 6-0 against High Point in his three-year tenure as a Lancer.
 
"I think [the Winthrop series] was a really good lesson for us to see a team that competed on every single possession. They got to see that up front and center, and I think that poured some gasoline on the fire that was burning. I was really proud of them tonight because you could tell High Point was committed to coming out and competing at a high level. I thought we really battled and out-competed them."
 
Longwood won that battle in the second half, thanks in part to freshman dynamo Justin Hill who poured in 13 of his career-high 20 points after halftime. Hill shot 8-of-11 from the field, sank a career-high three three-pointers and scored seven consecutive points to spark a game-breaking 26-7 second-half run that erased a 38-37 High Point advantage and put Longwood ahead for good.
 
Hill's scoring effort, along with Longwood's second-ranked Big South scoring defense, helped the Lancers turn a one-point halftime lead into a second straight double-digit win. That defense showed up in a big way in Wednesday's second half, as the Lancers allowed the Panthers just 11 points on their final 19 possessions of the game. Included in that stretch was a scoreless drought of more than four minutes in which Longwood inflated a two-point lead to 16 by scoring 14 unanswered points – nine of which came on three-pointers from Juan Munoz and Hill.
 
"Before the game I told the guys the mentally tough team will win. I think you saw that tonight," Aldrich said. "They didn't fall apart, they stayed the course and they continued to chip away. I remember looking up and saying, 'Oh my gosh, we're up 12.' I'm just really proud we're seeing some real growth in that area."
 
Munoz joined Hill in carrying Longwood's offense, contributing 14 points with four three-pointers. He hit two of those treys in each half to continue a hot shooting streak in which he has knocked down 14-of-25 treys in his past three games.
 
Bligen also chipped in 10 points, while freshman Jesper Granlund scored all nine of his points on three first-half treys, including one in the closing seconds that sent Longwood into the locker room with a 33-32 halftime lead.
 
Meanwhile, High Point got 21 points from sophomore guard John-Michael Wright, but the Lancer bench more than made up the difference by outscoring their High Point reserve counterparts 34-8.
 
Now riding the momentum of back-to-back wins, the Lancers will head into a eight-day break between games that is their longest since entering the heart of their Big South schedule. Their next two-game series will take place on Jan. 29-30 at Presbyterian, which remains the lone Big South team to defeat second-place Radford this season.
 
"We are where we are in the season," Aldrich said. "If we're going to continue to pour into the root, the goal is not to have a certain record; the goal is to get better.
 
"This is going to be the first time we'll have some extended time to practice, probably since before Christmas. This is a time for us to pause, for the guys to get their legs back and get a break mentally. It's a time to reset, but at the same time, we have to get to work on some things we need to clean up defensively and offensively. I'm really excited for the guys but I'm really just proud of their perseverance."
 
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