WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- The Longwood women's basketball team and William & Mary are set for their 61st all-time meeting Sunday at Kaplan Arena. Andrew Phillips and Misha Jones will have the call on FloHoops at 1 p.m.
STORYLINES
▪ Longwood closes its seven-game road trip Sunday against William & Mary Sunday at Kaplan Arena in what is the 61st all-time meeting between the in-state foes.
▪ The series with William & Mary dates to Feb. 28, 1931 when Longwood topped the Tribe, 38-9, in Farmville. The Lancers hold a 38-21-1 advantage overall and are 21-13 all-time in Williamsburg despite not winning on The Tribe's home floor since Nov. 23, 2004, a 60-46 victory. Also of note, the teams played to a rare 45-45 tie on Feb. 9, 1952 in Farmville.
▪ Longwood is 30-71 (.297) since the 1981-82 season against teams currently part of the Coastal Athletic Association. The Lancers have eight victories against former Big South Conference member and newest league addition, Campbell. LU also has six wins each against William & Mary and Hampton and five versus Elon.
▪ Sunday's contest concludes a stretch where Longwood plays nine of its first 10 games away from home. The Lancers will have traveled approximately 4,534 miles in that span. LU's seven-game road trip is the second longest in the nation this season. Middle Tennessee completed an eight-game trip from Nov. 18-Dec. 10, traveling four states and the Bahamas in 35 days, playing to a 6-2 record.
▪ In its second season under head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery, Longwoood boasts a 9-7 record when holding opponents under 70 points. The Lancers were 7-5 last season when limiting opponents to 60-69 points and 2-2 when the other team scored 59 or fewer. LU is 1-0 in the latter situation this season.
SCOUTING THE TRIBE
William & Mary enters Sunday at 3-6 overall, having not played since Dec. 7 in a 75-56 loss at James Madison. W&M won the FIU Thanksgiving Tournament in Miami Nov. 24 and 26, beating Tennessee State, 63-53, and the host Panthers, 59-57.
Under second-year head coach Erin Dickerson Davis, the Tribe was picked to finish ninth in the 14-team CAA. Nyah Young leads the league in points per game (18.0) and total points (162), while being second in field goals (57) and free throw percentage (92.3). She is fourth overall in field goal percentage (46.7).
Bella Nascimento averages 1.78 3-pointers per game, which is 10th in the conference.
LAST TIME OUT
Duquesne ran to a 25-4 advantage after the first quarter, winning, 89-69, Thursday. The Dukes set a single-game team record for 3-pointers made (20), also tying the Atlantic 10 mark, while Tess Myers canned 11 triples, scoring 35 points, to break the school's single-game individual record for made 3s.
The Lancers rebounded well to hang with Duquesne the final three quarters, wining the second, 19-18, and the fourth, 27-19.
Longwood also won the rebounding battle (38-36), had more points in the paint (24-20) and fastbreak points (18-10).
NOTING THE WIN AT OHIO
Longwood's 75-72 victory at Ohio Nov. 29 was its first non-league true road win since beating Lamar, 62-59, in Beaumont, Texas, on Nov. 28, 2021.
Longwood grabbed a season-high 51 rebounds against the Bobcats, marking the most since collecting 54 against Hampton March 3, 2022, a 70-61 win in the Big South quarterfinals.
LANCERS 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.
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 (128, 42nd in Division I, 45th in all NCAA divisions), points (1,303, 100th in Division I, 167th in all divisions), free throws made (358, 33rd in Division I, 50th in all divisions) and free throws attempted (468, 35th in Division I, 50th in all divisions).
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE BENCH
Longwood's non-starters are averaging 25 points per game, a figure that is second in the Big South and 72nd overall in in Division I. UNC Asheville leads the league in the category at 27.7 points per game.
Longwood outscored the opponent bench against Chowan Nov. 12 and at Stony Brook Monday.
OTAIFO EARNS BIG SOUTH HONOR
Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu earned Big South Freshman of the Week Nov. 20 after averaging three points and 8.5 rebounds at James Madison and Clemson. She tallied career highs of 15 rebounds and three blocks against JMU.
RECORD BOOK TALK
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy, the newly minted school-record holder in career made free throws (358), is also eighth in free-throw percentage (76.5) and 12th in career points (1,303), two points from passing Florence Holmes (1981-85) for 11th.
Additionally, senior guard Janay Turner turned in the seventh best single-season mark for free-throw percentage in 2022-23, hitting 83.6 (92-of-110) of her freebies in her first season in Farmville. Turner's mark ranked 69th in the NCAA a season ago.
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).
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.
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.
NEXT TO 1,000?
Redshirt-senior guard Adriana Shipp-Davis comes into play needing 161 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 38 times in her career, leading the Lancers to an 18-20 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.
CENTURY MARK
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is just one made 3-pointer from 100 for her career. In 128 games and 94 starts, the Seneca, S.C., native is 99-for-330 from 3-point range, good for 30 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 then-career high of 20 points, originally set at Norfolk State in the 2021-22 season, three times for the Lancers last season.
She set a new career high in the win over Ohio Nov. 29, scoring 22 points on 6-for-13 shooting, also going a perfect 9-for-9 at the free-throw line.
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.
20-POINT SCORERS
Senior guard Janay Turner scored a career-high 22 points on 6-for-13 shooting Nov. 29 at Ohio, including going a career-best 9-for-9 at the free-throw line. Turner also came up with a clutch steal with 7.1 seconds left to help seal the win. It marked the second 20-point performance for the Lancers this season as junior guard Malea Brown also tallied 20 in the win against Chowan on Nov. 12.
So far this season, there have been 27 games in which a player has scored at least 20 points in the Big South from 16 different individuals.
FREE THROWS WIN BALLGAMES
Longwood leads the Big South in free throws made per game at 12.78, a figure that is 129th in the nation. The Lancers also lead the league in free throw attempts (17.89), also 129th best in the country.
Individually, Janay Turner ranks sixth in the league and 191st in the country in free trow percentage (78).
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 41.7 percent (15-for-36) from distance.
As a team, the Lancers lead the Big South in 3-point field goal percentage at 31.7 percent, good for 157th 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 Longwood with 5.6 rebounds per game through nine games.
Esenabhalu is one of just two players in the 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 and 16 against UNC Wilmington on Nov. 29.
LU LEADS LEAGUE IN STEALS
As a team, the Lancers rank first in the Big South in steals per game (11.3), which is 34th in the nation.
Junior guard Malea Brown is second in the league and 132nd in nationally in steals, averaging 2.11 per game.
