ATHENS, Ohio -- The Longwood women's basketball team returns from the Thanksgiving holiday to take on Ohio at the Convocation Center Wednesday at 7 p.m.
STORYLINES
▪ Longwood returns to action Wednesday at Ohio after a nine-day layoff for the Thanksgiving holiday. The meeting with the Bobcats is a return engagement following the Lancers' 66-65 victory when the teams met Nov. 10, 2022 at Willett Hall in Farmville.
▪ Longwood is 1-1 all-time against teams from the Mid-American Conference in its Division I history, which began in 2004-05. Prior to last year's game with Ohio, The Lancers played Central Michigan on Dec. 19, 2011. The Chippewas won that one, 70-59, in the Wright State Invitational in Dayton, Ohio.
▪ Wednesday's contest continues a stretch where Longwood plays nine of its first 10 games away from home. LU will travel approximately 4,534 miles in that span.
▪ With a free throw with 43 seconds remaining in the first quarter Nov. 15 at James Madison, graduate guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy became Longwood's all-time career leader in made free throws. She broke Marita Meldere's mark of 343, set in 2005, and now has 346 makes from the line and counting.
▪ Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu was named Big South Freshman of the Week on Nov. 20 following a week where she averaged three points and 8.5 rebounds per game as the Lancers faced James Madison and Clemson. Esenabhalu tallied career highs of 15 rebounds and three blocks against the Dukes. The weekly honor is the first for a Longwood first-year player in head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery's tenure, while guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy earned Co-Big South Player of the Week last season Feb. 20, 2023.
SCOUTING THE BOBCATS
Ohio comes into the game Wednesday at 2-2 on the season following a 75-71 home win over IUPUI on Sunday. Jaya McClure led four Bobcats in double figures with 21 points on 6-for-12 shooting, also adding five assists. McClure is tops on the team, averaging 15.7 points per game, while Madi Mace leads in rebounding at 4.8 per game.
The Bobcats, under 11th-year head coach Bob Boldon, were picked to finish ninth in the 12-team league.
LAST TIME OUT
Longwood fell, 102-63, at Clemson on Nov. 19 as six Tigers scored double digits. Clemson posted its highest-scoring quarter in progra history with 33 in the opening 10 minutes and didn't look back.
Junior Kiki McIntyre led the Lancers with a season-high 12 points while freshman Amor Harris tallied a career-high nine points in 11 minutes off the bench. Graduate guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy added nine points of her own, playing minutes from her hometown of Seneca, S.C.
LAST TIME VERSUS OHIO
Janay Turner hit the go-ahead layup with 6.8 seconds remaining as Longwood topped Ohio, 66-65, at Willett Hall on Nov. 10, 2022. Longwood trailed by four entering the fourth quarter before Adriana Shipp-Davis scored six of her team-best-tying 13 points in the final 10 minutes for LU's first win of 2022-23.
LANCERS PICKED FOURTH IN BIG SOUTH POLL
Longwood was picked fourth in the 2023-24 Big South preseason poll, announced at the conference media day in Concord, N.C., on Oct. 17.
The fourth-place tag marks the Lancers' second-highest predicted finish since joining the league for the 2012-13 season.
High Point, the Big South runner up a season ago, was chosen first with eight first-place votes and 80 total points, followed by Presbyterian and Radford in a tie for second with 61 points. The Blue Hose earned the final nod for the top spot in the poll.
BACK FOR MORE
Among the Lancers' four returning starters are 2023 All-South second-team selections
Adriana Shipp-Davis and
Anne-Hamilton LeRoy. Shipp-Davis is a preseason All-Big South first teamer this year after ranking fourth in the Big South in scoring at 13.9 points per game, while LeRoy earned a spot on the preseason second team following a season that saw her seventh in scoring (13.4).
TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER
Fifth-year guard
Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is among the NCAA's active career leaders in several statistical categories. Those are: games played (124, 45th in Division I, 48th in all NCAA divisions), points (1,257, 102nd in Division I and 170th in all divisions), free throws made (346, 34th in Division I and 48th in all divisions) and free throws attempted (452, 36th in Division I and 50th in all divisions).
POUTINE, PLEASE
Hailing from Montreal, Quebec, freshman forward
Frances Ulysse is the first player from north of the border to suit up for Longwood in its Division I history, which began in 2004-05. Ulysse averaged 15.2 points and 9.2 rebounds in 2022-23 at Vanier College, earning regional all-star honors.
Since the 2010-11 season, only eight other foreign-born student-athletes have played for the Lancers. They are: Mina Jovanovic, of Smederevska Palanka, Serbia, from 2010-12, Mieke Elkington, of Hamilton, New Zealand, from 2011-13, Jovana Vukovic, of Bar, Montenegro, in 2016-17, Rosemary Ilang, of Abuja, Nigeria, from 2017-19, Kristina Antonenko, of Moscow, Russia, from 2017-19, Milou Vennema, of Groningen, Netherlands, from 2018-23, Andrijana Reljic, of Sarajevo, Bosnia, from 2019-21 and Geassy Germano, of São Paulo, Brazil, from 2021-23.
RECORD BOOK TALK
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy, the newly minted school-record holder in career made free throws, is also seventh in free-throw percentage (.765) and 13th in career points (1,257), just four points from tying Ashley Mason for 12th in history.
Additionally, senior guard Janay Turner turned in the seventh best single-season mark for free-throw percentage in 2022-23, hitting on .836 (92-of-110) of her freebies in her first season in Farmville after transferring from Norfolk State. Turner's mark ranked 69th in the NCAA a season ago.
NEXT TO 1,000?
Redshirt-senior guard Adriana Shipp-Davis comes into play needing 199 points to reach the 1,000-point milestone for her career. The 2023 Preseason All-Big South First Team honoree posted 21 double-figure scoring games, including seven with 20-plus points, last season. She has scored in double digits 37 times in her career, leading the Lancers to an 18-19 record in those games. When Shipp-Davis goes for 20 or more, which she's done eight times, Longwood has played to a 4-4 record.
Shipp-Davis turned in a career high of 26 points in a 75-65 victory over UNC Asheville on Jan. 11, 2023 while shooting 9-for-14 from the field that day.
FIRSTS IN THE FIRST STATE
Freshman guard Amor Harris made her collegiate debut against Delaware on Nov. 9, going 1-for-2 from the field with two rebounds in just over seven minutes off the bench.
Her first basket came on a pull-up jumper in the paint with 1:57 remaining in the game.
All 13 players on the roster have seen minutes five games into the season.
HOME, SWEET HOME
Longwood opened its home slate Nov. 12 with an 88-59 victory over NCAA Division II Chowan on Homecoming and Alumni Weekend. The game was the first in women's basketball at the new Joan Perry Brock Center, made possible by an initial $15 million gift from Brock, a 1964 alumna and philanthropist. Prior to moving next door to the JPB, the Lancers competed in Willett Hall, opened in 1980, compiling a 312-202 (.607) record in the building since the 1981-82 season.
CENTURY MARK
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is just one made 3-pointer from 100 for her career. In 124 games and 90 starts, the Seneca, S.C., native is 99-for-326 from 3-point range, good for 30.4 percent.
TURNER PROVIDES SCORING
Aside from Anne-Hamilton LeRoy and Adriana Shipp-Davis, a third starter from the 2022-23 season who averaged double figures returns to the fold in Janay Turner. A 5-foot-8 senior guard from Chicago, Turner registered 10.9 points per game, scoring double digits in 16 of 29 contests. Turner matched her career high of 20 points, originally set at Norfolk State in the 2021-22 season, three times for the Lancers.
She poured in 20 to tie for game-high scoring honors with Shipp-Davis in a 70-68 win over Presbyterian on Jan. 21 and also had 20 points in a 59-50 road win at UNC Asheville on Feb. 25 to help the Lancers clinch a first-round bye in the Big South tournament.
TOPS IN BIG SOUTH IN SCORING
Longwood leads the Big South in scoring average at 64.8 points per game, which is 203rd in the nation.
WILLIAMS DEPENDABLE AT POINT
Senior Bailey Williams is also back for her second season for the Lancers after becoming a steady and reliable point guard in 2022-23. Williams averaged 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game while starting in all 30 contests. She played 30.8 minutes per game, a figure that was good for 13th overall in the Big South last season.
A strong defender as well, Williams finished 25th in the conference, swiping 1.1 steals per game. She twice collected a career high of four steals in a game last year – in an 80-70 home victory over Charleston Southern on Jan. 4 and a 97-64 win against USC Upstate on Feb. 15, also at Willett Hall.
TAKING CARE OF THE ROCK
Longwood leads the Big South in turnover margin at 1.80 (130th nationally). The Lancers commit an average of 18.6 turnovers per game (fourth best in the league), while forcing 20.4, which also leads the conference and is 58th in the country.
TURNER FROM DOWNTOWN
On the heels of shooting a career-best 5-for-5 from 3-point range in the 88-59 win over Chowan Nov. 12, Janay Turner is shooting 52.9 percent from distance (9-for-17).
As a team, the Lancers lead the Big South in 3-point field goal percentage at 36.2 percent, good for 44th in the country.
OTAIFO ON THE GLASS
Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu has made an impact on the on the boards for the Lancers in the early going this season. The Valdosta, Ga., native leads the Lancers with 8.8 rebounds per game through five games.
Esenabhalu is one of just two players in te Big South to secure 15 or more boards in a game this season when she grabbed that many at James Madison on Nov. 15.
Marissa Gasaway of Winthrop collected 17 rebounds at South Carolina State on Nov. 17.
ANNE THE THIEF
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is second in steals per game with 2.00. That figure is 168th in Division I.
As a team, the Lancers rank first in the league in steals per game (15.8), which is 15th in the nation.
