Game 19 • Longwood (13-5, 2-1 Big South)  at Winthrop (11-7, 1-2 Big South)
Date & Time	Saturday, January 11, 2025 | 2 p.m.
Location	Rock Hill, S.C. (Winthrop Coliseum)
Game Notes	Longwood | Winthrop | Big South
Statistics	Longwood | Winthrop | Big South
TV/Stream	ESPN+
Live Stats	Live Stats
Tickets	https://vivenu.com/event/mbb-game-1-copy-xv4nmf
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodMBB

THE OPENING TIP
•    Longwood opens up a stretch of four of six on the road, with trips to Winthrop, Radford, Gardner-Webb and Charleston Southern in that run.
•    The Lancers and Winthrop last played in the Big South Tournament in the quarterfinals last season.
•    Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich is one of the longest-tenured head coaches in the Big South at seven years, along with Mike Morrell at UNC Asheville.
•    The Big South has been hyper-competitive through three games. Every team in the Big South has at least one conference win, and no team is undefeated in conference play.
•    Longwood faces a Winthrop team that lost back-to-back games on the road at Radford and Gardner-Webb last week.
•    Winthrop is 11-2 at home this season in the Winthrop Coliseum and is led by Kelton Talford at 15.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.
 
LAST TIME OUT
•    Longwood used a big night from Michael Christmas and relentless effort on the boards to take down UNC Asheville 85-76.
•    Christmas poured in a career best 27 points and added eight rebounds and three assists while hitting a career high six three pointers.
•    Longwood ripped down 24 offensive boards and outrebounded Asheville 48-23 to offset a night where the Lancers shot less than 40 percent from the floor.
•    Three other Lancers scored in double figures, with Elijah Tucker adding 14 points and nine boards, Colby Garland chipping in 13, and Kyrell Luc added his first career double-double with rebounds after notching 11 points and 10 boards.
•    Jordan Marsh had 15 points to lead four Asheville players in double figures.
•    Longwood created separation after halftime and fended off a late Asheville run.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
•    Longwood is tied for the league lead in true road wins with three, and the team is 3-1 on the road.
•    This season, Longwood is 4-1 when shooting below 40 percent from the floor.
•    In the five games the Lancers have shot worse than 40 percent, the team has grabbed 15.8 offensive boards, better than their season average of 12.6
•    The 24 offensive rebounds against UNC Asheville were a season high and the most since Longwood snared 24 offensive boards against St. Mary's on November 11.
•    Longwood has scored at least 80 points in a game nine times in 18 games this season after cresting the 80-point mark 15 times a season ago. The Lancers are 8-1 when scoring at least 80 points this year.
•    Longwood shot 39 free throws in the win over UNC Asheville, the second-most free throw attempts in a game for the team this season. The 29 made shots matched the season-high, which came when the squad was 29-40 against Randolph in the season opener.
•    Michael Christmas's 27 points marked the sixth time this season a Lancer player has scored at least 20 points. KJ McClurg and Elijah Tucker have each scored 20 points or more twice in a game, and Colby Garland has hit the mark once.
•    The Lancers are ranked No. 186 in the NCAA Net rankings, the third-highest team in the Big South.
•    Four teams from the league are in the top 200 of the NCAA Net Rankings. Fittingly, the league is closer than ever, with no teams unbeaten through three games while every team has at least one conference win.
•    The Lancer men and women have combined for 25 wins which ties for the lead in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
 
QUOTABLE
"I've been struggling lately, so it feels good to have this little explosion today. We wanted to come in here and play our basketball that we've been preaching for the whole time now since June. We just try to play hard, play aggressive. We were playing aggressive on the offensive rebounding, and then trying to get stops and keep playing to our principles."
—Forward Michael Christmas about his career best 27 points and how the team played together against UNC Asheville