Game 31 • 2025 Hercules Tires Big South Championship • No. 2 Longwood (20-10) vs No. 7 USC Upstate (9-20)
Date & Time	Thursday, March 6, 2025 (6 p.m.)
Location	Johnson City, Tenn. (Freedom Hall Civic Center)
2025 Hercules Tires Big South Basketball Championship Page	Click Here
Longwood Tournament Central	Click Here
Game Notes	Longwood | USC Upstate
Live Stats	Live Stats
Live Video	ESPN+ (Mike Gleason and Sarah Jansen)
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodWBB

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- The Longwood women's basketball team opens play in the 2025 Hercules Tires Big South Basketball Championship quarterfinals Thursday at 6 p.m., as the No. 2 seed against No. 7 USC Upstate at Freedom Hall Civic Center.

STORYLINES
▪ Longwood is 7-11 overall all-time in the Big South tournament, including a 3-0 mark as the No. 2 seed when it captured the 2022 tournament title and won an NCAA first-round game.
▪ Third-year head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery, who has orchestrated an 11-win improvement over each of her first two seasons in Farmville, was named Big South Coach of the Year. She is the first coach at Longwood to earn the honor in women's basketball.
▪ Kiki McIntyre was named Big South Defensive Player of the Year and to the All-Big South Second Team. She leads the NCAA in total steals (121) and steals per game (4.03) as of March 4. She is the third Lancer in four years to be Defensive Player of the Year.
▪ Kiki McIntyre became Longwood's all-time single-season steals leader after swiping seven at Presbyterian on Feb. 15. She currently has 204 career steals and is four away from breaking into the all-time top 10 at Longwood.
▪ Amor Harris (second team), Mariah Wilson (honorable mention) and Nalani Simmons (all-academic team) also earned Big South year-end awards.
▪ Kiki McIntyre is 15th in all NCAA Divisions of women's basketball among active players in career steals average (3.40).
▪ Longwood is creating 24.87 turnovers per game, which is tops in the NCAA, as of March 4 games. The Lancers have forced the most total turnovers (746) of any team in the country. Further, Longwood has caused more turnovers than the opposition in 25-of-30 games this year, going 19-6 in those contests. Longwood also leads the Big South in turnover margin at plus-6.93, which is currently 16th in Division I.

SCOUTING USC UPSTATE
USC Upstate finished the regular season 6-10 after beating the Lancers 62-60 in overtime on Saturday in Farmville.

Upstate guard Cassie Gallagher was named Big South Freshman of the Year and honorable mention all-conference following a season where she averaged 9.8 points and 3.1 rebounds and was named Freshman of the Week six times.

The Spartans' Rebekah Gordon is the league's top rebounder, averaging 8.5 per game. Upstate leads the conference rebound margin at plus-3.6.

LAST TIME OUT
USC Upstate's Cassie Gallagher knocked down a baseline jumper with 7.3 seconds remaining in overtime as the Spartans nipped the Lancers, 62-60, in the final regular-season game Saturday.

Following a 30-second timeout, Amor Harris hit the front rim on a fall-away jumper from the left block as time expired.

Gallagher scored a game-high 25 points and hit seven 3-pointers for the Spartans. Kiki  McIntyre had 14 points, nine steals and five assists for Longwood.

The Lancers trailed by seven points halfway through the fourth quarter before coming all the way back to force overtime, Longwood's first extra session since the 2022-23 season.

EIGHT IN A ROW
Longwood enjoyed an eight-game winning streak from Dec. 18 versus Webber International to Jan. 22 against Radford.

The Lancers outscored the opposition by an average of 20.9 points per game and also shot 47.3 percent from the field while limiting opponents to just 36.8 percent from the floor in the stretch.

The streak included Longwood's program-best Big South start at 6-0. It was the first time LU won its first six conference games since the 1999-00 season, when Shirley Duncan's Lancers were 20-9 overall and 14-4 in the Division II Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference. 

MCINTYRE BIG SOUTH HONOR
Kiki McIntyre was named Co-Big South Player of the Week on Jan. 6, averaging 12 points, six steals and 3.3 rebounds per game in a 3-0 week. Her 10 steals against Presbyterian Jan. 2 tied the Big South record for steals in a league game, last accomplished by Towson's Tanya Belair, on Dec. 17, 1993 against Winthrop. It is currently tied for the fifth most steals in Division I women's basketball this season.

HARRIS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Amor Harris was named Big South Player of the Week Dec. 10 after earning MVP in the Shirley Duncan Classic. Harris averaged 17 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. Her 24 field goals and 51 points in the tournament were the second and 10th most, respectively, in the NCAA for the week ending Dec. 9.

Harris was the second LU player this season to claim weekly honors, joining Frances Ulysse, who was named Co-Big South Player of the Week Nov. 18.

NON-CON SUCCESS
Longwood went 9-5 in regular-season non-conference action. It marked the best out-of-conference record for the Lancers since Shirley Duncan's 1987-88 squad was 10-9 outside of Mason-Dixon Conference play. That team finished 14-13 overall.

GETTING VOTES
Longwood received three votes in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 on Jan. 14 and 21, respectively. Prior to those polls,  Longwood last appeared in the final poll of the 2021-22 season.

LUCKY 7
The Lancers played half of their 14 non-conference games in the Joan Perry Brock Center this season. That reflects a stark contrast from 2023-24 in which Longwood played seven consecutive non-league games away from Farmville from Nov. 15 at James Madison to Dec. 17 at William & Mary, traveling approximately 4,534 miles in that span.

Longwood finished regular-season non-conference play 9-5, including going 5-2 at home.

FIVE IN DOUBLE FIGURES
Longwood has had five players score double figures in three games this season. The Lancers first accomplished it in a 80-66 win at Queens on Nov. 18, then at UNCW on Dec. 29, an 84-68 victory. LU also did it Jan. 8 at UNC Asheville, a 95-51 win.

CONSECUTIVE BIG SOUTH HONORS
Mariah Wilson was named Co-Big South Player of the Week Jan. 13, averaging 20 points, five rebounds and three steals per game. Wilson shot 63.6 percent from the field, 44.4 percent from downtown and made all eight free throws for the week. After Kiki McIntyre also earned Co-Big South Player of the Week Jan. 6, it marked the first time Longwood claimed Big South Player of the Week honors in consecutive weeks since Jan. 11 and 18, 2021, when Kyla McMakin and Akila Smith did so.

LET'S PLAY TWO!
Forward Montgomery Bedford, who was recruited to Farmville to play women's lacrosse for the Lancers, walked onto the women's basketball team this fall. Bedford is believed to be one of just four dual-sport student-athletes on Division I women's basketball rosters this season.

The others are Santa Clara forward Lauren Glover (women's volleyball); Cincinnati guard Daylee Dunn (track and field) and Cal State Fullerton guard/forward Samantha Schuler, (track and field).

Bedford is the first two-sport athlete to play women's basketball at Longwood since Mallory Odell did it from 2017-21 (softball).

MS. 1,000
Guard Kiki McInytre reached 1,000 career points Dec. 29 at UNCW with a layup at the 4:42 mark in the second quarter. She now has 1,164 in her time at Longwood (2023-25) and Division II St. Leo (2020-23).

150 ON THE HORIZON
Third-year head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery's next win will be the 150th in her 13-year head coaching career. She is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA Division II Flagler history with 111 victories in 10 seasons. She has 38 with the Lancers since coming to Farmville prior to the 2022-23 season. She also had stops as an assistant coach at seven Division I institutions since beginning her career at Purdue in the 1995-96 season.

REVISITING THE DUNCAN CLASSIC
Longwood won three games in three days Dec. 6-8 in the Shirley Duncan Classic, its first home in-season tournament since 2010-11. Amor Harris scored a career-high 23 points on 10-for-19 shooting off the bench to lift the Lancers to a 67-60 win over South Carolina State in the opener.

Harris added a team-high 12 points Saturday as Longwood overcame a 10-point third-quarter deficit to beat William & Mary for the first time since 2013, 53-44.

Longwood then rolled to an 81-54 victory over McNeese Sunday, receiving 16 points, and nine steals to go with seven assists from Kiki McIntyre.

Harris earned MVP honors while McIntyre and Otaifo Esenabhalu – who recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds against the Cowgirls – were named to the all-tournament team.

As a team, the Lancers caused 31.7 turnovers and tallied 18.3 steals per game in the tournament.

20 WINS
LU's 59-55 win at Winthrop Feb. 26 gave it 20 wins for just the eighth time in at least the last 56 seasons, dating to 1969-70. The only other time Longwood won 20 in its Division I history was in the 2022 Big South championship season (22-12).

HREE'S COMPANY
The Lancers went 9-for-21 (42.9 percent) from 3-point range against Winthrop Jan. 11. It marked the third time this season and fifth in head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery's Longwood tenure that the Lancers made that many from distance.

Longwood also went 9-for-20 (45 percent) at Norfolk State on Nov. 7 and 9-for-27 (33.3 percent) Nov. 10 against Hood

Longwood buried 10 from downtown in an 88-59 homecoming win over Chowan Nov. 12, 2023 and nine more in a 77-64 loss at Presbyterian on Feb. 8, 2023.

The Lancers are 15-13 under Lang-Montgomery when they make at least five 3-pointers in a game.

REBOUNDING MACHINE
Sophomore Otaifo Esenabhalu is currently 72nd in the NCAA in total rebounds with 247. She is also 98th in rebounds per game at 8.2. She leads the Big South in the latter category and is third in the former.

Esenabhalu is also second in the Big South with 10 double-figure rebounding games.

BAND OF THIEVES
Longwood made a season-high 25 steals in its 105-38 victory over Webber International Dec. 18. The Lancers have now secured at least 15 steals in a game 19 times under Erika Lang-Montgomery. The Lancers are 15-4 in those contests. Longwood is averaging 14.1 steals per game this year, which is currently fourth in the NCAA.

Kiki McInytre leads the nation in total steals with 121. Malea Brown is second in the league and 21st nationally with 75 while Mariah Wilson is third in the league and 43rd in the country with 69 steals. McIntyre leads the country in steals per game at 4.03.

Longwood led the Big South and finished 21st in the country in steals per game at 10.7 last season. McIntyre led the league at 2.77 per game, good for 20th in the NCAA, while she collected 83 total steals, which also led the league and was 29th in the country.

SPREADING THE LOVE
In 25 of the 30 games of the season, at least eight players put their names in the scoring column.

In the Nov. 10 102-21 homecoming victory over Hood, 12 of the 13 players on the roster scored points.

BENCH PRODUCTION
Longwood outscored the opponent bench in 13 games in 2023-24 and has done so in 22 of the 30 games this season.

The Lancers posted an overwhelming 62-8 edge from its reserves – the largest margin of the season – as Longwood drubbed Webber International, 105-38 on Dec. 18.

Longwood is averaging 27.5 bench points per game in 2024-25, good for 14th in NCAA Division I and first in the Big South.

CONSECUTIVE DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Otaifo Esenabhalu posted back-to-back double-doubles in the wins over Hood on Nov. 10 and at American on Nov. 13.

She tallied 12 points and 13 rebounds  against the Blazers and game highs of 10 points and 13 boards versus the Eagles. They were the first consecutive double-doubles for a Longwood player since Akila Smith accomplished the feat on two separate occasions in the Lancers' Big South championship season of 2021-22. Smith last did it at North Carolina A&T (Dec. 29, 2021) and Presbyterian (Jan. 1, 2022), both Longwood victories.

Esenabhalu has five double-doubles on the season and seven in her career.

MATCHING BEST D-I START
The Lancers won three of their first four games to start the season for only the third time at the Division I level.

Longwood won its first three games of the 2006-07 season, beating American, Norfolk State and North Florida, before falling at William & Mary that year.

 In 2013-14, the Lancers dropped the opener at Seton Hall before defeating William & Mary, Utah Valley and Xavier.

ULYSSE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sophomore forward Frances Ulysse was named Big South Co-Player of the Week on Nov. 18. She averaged 12.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in a 1-1 week that featured Longwood's first win over American since the 2006-07 season.

WINNING THE FIRST ONE
The Lancers' season-opening 81-70 win against Lincoln (Pa.) on Nov. 4 at the Joan Perry Brock Center marked Longwood's first victory to begin a season since defeating Campbell, 71-48, in the Lancer Classic at Willett Hall on Nov. 12, 2010.