FARMVILLE, Va. – Freshman guard Malea Brown scored a team-leading 20 points, including 14 in the second half, pacing four in double figures, as the Longwood women's basketball team opened the Joan Perry Brock Center in style with an 88-59 victory over Chowan Sunday.
 
Brown went 6-for-7 from the floor and 2-of-3 from 3-point range after halftime. Senior Janay Turner scored 19 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Senior Bailey Williams added 11 points, three rebounds and three assists while junior Laney Bone tallied 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots in the win.
 
"It's always great when you can get that first win under your belt, especially to do it in our home opener was really incredible," head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery said. "I was really impressed with our effort on the boards tonight, we really had a team effort there. We had Malea and Janay hit some big shots for us to give us some momentum when we needed to get that run started again."
 
The Lancers (1-2) played stifling defense from the start, turning Chowan over 29 times and grabbed a season-high 19 steals, including four from Bone.
 
After Sydney Roberts tied the game at 9-9 just 2:33 into play, Longwood kept the Hawks off the scoreboard for the next 6:25 and built an 18-9 advantage, capping the 9-0 run with an Adriana Shipp-Davis layup. The Lancers extended the lead to 25-10 at the end of the quarter when Brown was fouled on a 3-pointer in the final second and drained all three from the line.
 
Turner got hot in the second quarter and hit three consecutive shots from downtown to help Longwood take a 38-25 edge at intermission.
 
"She was on fire," Lang Montgomery said of Turner. "She was getting some good passes from her teammates for sure."
 
The lead grew to 16 at 43-27 on another Turner trey in the first minute of the second half and later to 20 at 65-45 after three quarters when freshman Otaifo Esenabhalu converted a bucket inside. Esenabhalu finished with eight points, a team-high 10 boards and a block.
 
 The second half, though, was the Putnam Hall, Fla., native's to show what she can do.
 
"She has the ability to score in bunches and I think everybody saw that tonight." Lang-Montgomery said of Brown.
 
Williams had eight points in the fourth quarter to help see the game out.
 
Longwood won the battle of the boards, 49-39, had 33 points off turnovers and used 34 points from its bench.
 
Tynasia Bunting collected a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds to lead Chowan.
 
The Lancers are back on the road Wednesday when they head to Harrisonburg to face James Madison. Game time at the Atlantic Union Bank Center is 7 p.m.
 
"Tomorrow it's back to the drawing board." Lang-Montgomery said. "We've got to get ready, turn the page and start our preparations for JMU on Wednesday. And so, our goal is get one percent better each day and that's what the focus will be on in practice tomorrow."