FARMVILLE, Va. — Senior Malea Brown paced the Longwood women's basketball team with 16 points, including 11 in a first half in which the Lancers drained half of their shots, but High Point came away with a 70-61 victory in Big South action at the Joan Perry Brock Center on Wednesday.

The Panthers hit nine 3-pointers and received a game-high 23 points from Lauren Scott to split the regular-season series. Jaleesa Lawrence added 17 points and eight rebounds for HPU, which improved to 14-11 overall and 9-3 in the league with the win.

Scott, herself, was 5-for-7 from long range, helping HPU finish 24-of-59 (49 percent) from the floor. Trailing by just seven at the start of the fourth quarter, the Lancers allowed the deficit to grow to as many as 16 with four and a half minutes remaining.

Longwood, however, didn't give up, closing to within nine points with a 7-0 run, punctuated by an Otaifo Esenabhalu offensive rebound and putback with three minutes left that made it a 65-56 game. That, though, was as close as the Lancers got.

"I felt like we battled and we fought the last few games," said Longwood head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery. "I did think that we played hard for 40 minutes tonight. High Point came out very aggressive. I thought we matched their intensity to start. They did a good job of finding open shooters when we were slow in our rotations."

Esenabhalu scored nine points and pulled down 13 boards for her 10th double-digit rebound game of the season.

Kiki McIntyre chipped in with eight points, three steals and three assists on the night. She now has 98 steals this season to tie with Ann Callaham from 1989-90 for the most steals in a single season in school history.

The Lancers hung with High Point much of the game, trailing 20-19 at the end of the first quarter 40-32 at the half after connecting on 11-of-22 attempts from the field. Both teams. Shot 50 percent in the third quarter.

Longwood held a plus-seven margin on the glass, pulling down 13 offensive rebounds, which led to a 19-8 advantage in second-chance points.

"We definitely took steps forward," Lang-Montgomery said. "I liked our response from Saturday's loss. Now it's putting it all together."

The Lancers (16-9, 7-4 Big South) will have an opportunity to do that Saturday at Presbyterian. Tip time at the Templeton Center is 2 p.m., on ESPN+.