SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- The Longwood women's basketball team hits the road Wednesday to take on USC Upstate at G.B. Hodge Center at 7 p.m.
STORYLINES
â–ª Longwood and USC Upstate play for the 23rd time in history Wednesday. The all-time series is tied, 11-11, with Upstate holding a 5-2 edge in Spartanburg. The Lancers have won the last two games, including the first meeting of 2023-24, 66-58, on Jan. 17 in Farmville.
â–ª The Lancers earned a 63-56 win over Charleston Southern on Saturday, completing a regular-season sweep of the Buccaneers. It marked the first sweep of CSU since taking a pair at Willett Hall on Feb. 12-13, 2021.
â–ª Longwood dealt USC Upstate its first Big South loss of the season when the teams met last month. In that contest,
Janay Turner scored 14 of her game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter to complete a comeback win. Down, 39-38, to start the fourth, it was the Lancers' first fourth-quarter comeback win since Feb. 18, 2023 at Radford.
â–ª Adriana Shipp-Davis is approaching a pair of milestones, needing 17 points to score 1,000 points and seven rebounds for 500 boards in her career. She would be the 142nd player in league history to score 1,000 points and 135th to grab 500 rebounds. If Shipp-Davis is able to join the 1,000/500 club, she'd be the 80th player in Big South history to do so.
▪ Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is currently 35th all-time in the Big South in scoring with 1,406 points – just six points from passing UNC Asheville's Shonese Jones for 34th – and is one of 141 players in league history to score 1,000 career points. LeRoy is eighth all-time in scoring at Longwood. She is also fourth all-time in the Big South in games played with 138, making her 100th start Jan. 10 at Radford.
SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
USC Upstate enters play Wednesday tied atop the Big South standings with both High Point and Radford at 7-2 in league games. The Spartans are 12-10 overall and have won four of their last five games since falling at Longwood, 66-58, on Jan. 17.
Isabell West leads Upstate in both points (11.3) and rebounds (6.6) per game while also being tops on the team with a 54.5 field goal percentage in 22 games off the bench.
The Spartans lead the Big South in four statistical categories: free throw percentage (74.2), free throws made per game (12.95), 3-point percentage (30.0) and 3-point percentage defense (32.1).
LAST TIME OUT
Kiki McIntyre scored a team-high 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting, adding five rebounds, three steals and two assists, to lead Longwood to a 63-56 win over Charleston Southern at the Joan Perry Brock Center Saturday.
McIntyre, who paced a group of three Lancers in double figures, helped Longwood complete a regular-season series sweep of the Bucs. Janay Turner added 15 points and Adriana Shipp-Davis 12 in the victory.
The Lancers held a 35-33 advantage at halftime and carried it through the finish despite a late charge from CSU. Longwood limited the Bucs to just seven points in the third quarter for separation and led by as many as 10 with less than eight minutes remaining.
 LU forced 16 Charleston Southern turnovers and earned a 46-45 rebounding edge.
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 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.
REPEAT WEEKLY HONORS
Forward Otaifo Esenabhalu recorded her first career double-double against Regent Jan. 27 with a career-high 16 points and 15 rebounds. She averaged 11 points and 13 rebounds in two games to earn Big South Freshman of the Week honors on Jan. 29. It was the second time Esenabhalu won the award, also doing so on Nov. 20.
TAKE ME TO YOU LEADER
Fifth-year guard Anne-Hamilton LeRoy is among the NCAA's active career leaders in several statistical categories. Those are: games played (138, 49th in Division I, 53rd in all NCAA divisions), points (1,406, 106th in Division I, 189th in all divisions), free throws made (375, 37th in Division I) and free throws attempted (492, 39th in Division I).
TOUGH NON-CONFERENCE SLATE
Longwood's non-conference slate was set up to be a challenge and it proved to be. The 10 non-league teams who defeated the Lancers this season own a combined record of 130-87 (.599), as of Tuesday.
CRASHIN' THE BOARDS
Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu has grabbed at least eight rebounds per game in seven of the last 12 games, dating to Dec. 22 against Georgia Southern when she collected nine. Esenabhalu is averaging 7.3 boards in that span, with an average of 7.0 in nine Big South Conference games to rank sixth in the league. She is tied for sixth in offensive (2.8) and tied for sixth in defensive (4.2) rebounds.
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE BENCH
Longwood's non-starters are averaging 20.7 points per game, a figure that is third in the Big South and 105th overall in Division I.
Longwood has outscored the opponent bench in seven games this season, including getting a season-high 40 points from its reserves Jan. 27 against Regent.
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 Montréal, Québec, 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 (375), is also eighth in free-throw percentage (76.2) and eighth in points (1,406).
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.
NEXT TO 1,000?
Redshirt senior guard Adriana Shipp-Davis comes into play needing 17 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 44 times in her career, leading the Lancers to an 19-25 record in those games. When Shipp-Davis goes for 20 or more, which she's done nine times, Longwood has played to a 4-5 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 hit her 100th career 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter against Georgia Southern Dec. 22, finishing 2-for-5 from distance on the day. In 138 games and 104 starts, the Seneca, S.C., native is 101-for-343 from 3-point range, good for 29.4 percent.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Adriana Shipp-Davis (20 points, 15 rebounds against Norfolk State) and Otaifo Esenabhalu (16 points, 15 boards) versus Regent) have Longwood's double-doubles this season. Only 14 players in the Big South have recorded a double-double this year.
TRUE ROAD WIN
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.
BIG DAY AGAINST REGENT
Longwood closed its non-conference slate last Saturday with a 103-52 victory over Regent. It marked the most points the Lancers scored since Dec. 12, 2015 in a 100-57 win against North Carolina Wesleyan. LU shot 60.3 percent from the field, setting season highs in rebounds (52), assists (27) and steals (20).
Four players scored in double digits for the third time in four games against the Royals, while all 12 active players scored points.
Longwood tied the school record for points in a quarter, scoring 40 in the fourth. LU also scored 40 in the third period of a 91-59 home win against Charleston Southern Feb. 2, 2022.
SHOOTING TRENDS
The Lancers shot 60.3 percent and limited Regent to 27.8 percent last Saturday and are now to 11-4 overall under head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery and 6-4 in 2023-24 when outshooting the opposition. It was the third time the Lancers shot 50 percent or better with Lang-Montgomery at the helm, also doing so against USC Upstate on Feb. 15, 2023 (52.3 percent) and at Presbyterian on Jan. 20 (50 percent).
SHUFFLING THE DECK
Longwood has employed six different starting lineups in 22 games so far this season. The five-player group of Kiki McIntyre, Anne-Hamilton LeRoy, Janay Turner, Frances Ulysse and Adriana Shipp-Davis started a team-high eight consecutive games from Dec. 31-Jan. 24 are 2-6 together.
Turner is the only Longwood player to start all 22 games, while LeRoy has 19 and Ulysse 16 times.
CONTROLLING THE BOARDS
Longwood has played to a 8-4 record when outrebounding its opponent in two seasons under head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. The Lancers are 5-2 when doing so this season with a combined plus-56 rebounding margin in their six victories.
LU LEADS LEAGUE IN SCORING
Longwood is atop the Big South in scoring average at 63.0 points per game, which is 221st in the nation.
20-POINT SCORERS
Janay Turner (career-high 24 points versus Regent, 20 Jan. 17 versus USC Upstate and 22 Nov. 29 at Ohio) has a team-leading three 20-point games for Longwood this season. Anne-Hamilton LeRoy also has multiple 20-point games (22 points at Presbyterian Jan. 20 and 23 versus Georgia Southern Dec. 22).
There have been 64 games in which a player has scored at least 20 points in the Big South from 23 different individuals.
FREE THROWS WIN BALLGAMES
The Lancers lead the league in free throw attempts (18.55), which is 88th in the country. Longwood is second in the Big South in free throws made per game at 12.68, a figure that is 115th in the nation. The Lancers are sixth in the league in free throw percentage (68.4), which is 251st nationally.
Individually, Janay Turner ranks third in the league in free throws attempted (105, 94th in Division I) and fourth in free throws made (77, 100th in Division I).
LANCERS LEAD LEAGUE IN STEALS
As a team, the Lancers lead the Big South in steals per game (10.9), which is 24th in the nation.
Junior guard Kiki McIntyre leads the league in both steals (52, 34th in Division I) and steals per game (2.36, 53rd in Division I). Fellow junior guard Malea Brown ranks second in the league and 131st nationally in steals at 41. Brown is also third in the ig South in steals per game at 1.86, good for 163rd in the nation.
TURNER FROM DOWNTOWN
Janay Turner went 5-for-7 from 3-point range in the Jan. 17 win over USC Upstate, matching her career high for 3-point makes in a game, and is shooting 37.5 percent (36-for-96) from distance on the year.
As a team, the Lancers are fifth in the league in 3-point field goal percentage at 30.1 percent, which is 213th nationally.
OTAIFO ON THE GLASS
Freshman forward Otaifo Esenabhalu has made an impact on the boards for the Lancers this season. She leads Longwood with 6.4 rebounds per game through 22 games.
Esenabhalu is one of just seven 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, repeating the performance with 15 Jan. 27 against Regent. Adriana Shipp-Davis also pulled down 15 Dec. 31 against Norfolk State, tying her career high.
THE ROAD GOES ON FOREVER
Longwood concluded the second-longest road trip in Division I women's basketball Dec. 17 at William & Mary. The Lancers played seven consecutive games away from the Joan Perry Brock Center, traveling approximately 4,534 miles in that span.
Middle Tennessee completed an eight-game trip from Nov. 18-Dec. 10, traversing four states and the Bahamas in 35 days, playing to a 6-2 record.
